Posted by Scott in Featured Articles, Movies | 58 comments
You call yourself a movie geek?
Last night at the ‘Wanted’ screening a great debate struck out with a few movie geeks, and in my opinion there are certain movies that a “Movie Geek” need to have in their arsenal. One of the “Movie Geeks” that posts here claimed last night to have never seen ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, and also chimed in and stated that ‘Braveheart’ was overrated. Now I can forgive the never seeing ‘Harry Potter’, but as a fan of cinema and to garner a “Movie Geek” title this is an unforgivable offense. Now, I want to poll our readers and other fellow movie geeks to see what you guys think about this..leave your comments below:
Should we revoke his geek card until he has seen the movies and passes a little quiz? or Should we just let it slide? Everyone chime in…
I would let it slide, but force him to sit down and watch the movies. The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion and according to almost every critic in the world, are some of the best movies, well.. ever.
And although many believe Harry Potter is a children’s series and all that, they are still gigantic and in the future, when people look back at the movies we all watched, I wouldn’t doubt that Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings will come up.
Hopefully this Movie Geek has at least seen Star Wars.
Yes, he has seen Star Wars(I think), but I am upset that he calls himself a movie geek without having seen Lord of the Rings..at all.
He probably hasn’t even seen ‘Citizen Kane’ … but, then again he may not be the only one on the site with that dirty little secret.
Atleast make him watch it and hold it against him for the rest of his life…..
How could he of not seen Lord of the Rings? They are amazing, especially the Return of the King. He must see them right away! Harry Potter is forgivable. I’ve seen all of them, but they do get tiresome after awhile.
Revoke that card. There are just some movies that any Movie Geek must see. If he flat out refuses to see The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he should be blacklisted from movie geekdom.
Citizen Kane is hardly the ‘end all, be all’ of cinema despite the collective critical handjob it gets on a yearly basis that suggests it. it mean, it’s pretty great, but its over-hyped worse than ‘Dark Knight’ this summer.
while we’re calling out our geek brethren, i’m more offended that you guys gave Wanted 4 1/2 star/5 star ratings than that one of our own hasn’t seen a couple of fan favorite films. it’s starting to look like our ratings system is on the studio payola. Hulk 4 1/2 stars? Happening 4 1/2 stars? Michelle, you realize that when the next Casablanca comes out you will never be able to give it a higher score than Wanted’s 5 now, right?
i say, leave that geek alone and let him be a geek anyway he wants to. who is this mystery man or woman anyway? let them step forward and be named!
Brett, The happening received a collective rating of 2 1/2 stars..only one of the geeks gave it that score, it will be adjusted promptly.
Hulk and Wanted I believe are both deserving of 4 1/2 stars out of 5. Have you seen Wanted yet?
And trust me, if the rating system was on the studio payola..i am not seeing any of it!
haha, fair enough.
I see you left their name off ..so no to offend his fragile ego….I say give him a week and by next weekend he has to get a 90% on the 10 question quiz we give him. Penalty will be no Dark Knight Preview!!!! That will get’em. I have three copies of the films (all versions) Have we checked on Godfather Trilogy, Scarface, Heat??? He hasn’t seen Citizen Kane..hes too young. Ok you should be able to figure out the villian by deduction of who hasn’t commented.
“Citizen Kane is hardly the ‘end all, be all’ of cinema despite the collective critical handjob it gets on a yearly basis that suggests it. it mean, it’s pretty great, but its over-hyped worse than ‘Dark Knight’ this summer.”
I totally disagree that Citizen Kane is over-hyped. Sure, it makes a constant appearance on top lists but there’s good reason for that – it’s a classic. Not only did it pioneer film making, it still stands today as a great, entertaining film. True, I don’t think it’s completely necessary for so called “Film Geeks” but it’s well deserving of its praise.
As for discrediting a “Film Geek” for not having seen LotR…not sure about that. It’s pretty shameful, even my parents have seen them, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I consider myself a pretty big film geek and I only saw SW a few years ago and only because I was forced.
I agree, if you arent into those types of movies, then sure not seeing them isnt the movie geek cardinal sin. However on the ride home last night he admitted to loving fantasy movies. So its not that its not his cup of tea, he just hasnt “bothered” with watching them…
Charles? CHARLES?!
also, there’s just too many amazing films in the world for any of these monolithic films to dominate list after list after list. how many completely amazing films have been lost under the giant shadow of the “official” classics? how many films that could’ve inspired film makers in more diverse ways than the same old institutions will never get a real chance except for things like Criterion?
Lord of the Rings is only a “Certified Classic” because the fans loved it..the same could be said with many other films. If they werent so epic and amazing they would stand along with other “epic” films like The Matrix..
exactly. i think it’s good that fans are making their own definitive lists of films that relate to their own lives, and not the aching antiquity behind many of the critics lists.
Ding Ding we have a winner. Way to go Brett. We should go through the list of “100 movies you should see before you die” and he should at leat be in the 40% range in that. Scott should we start getting the questions ready???
i guess I should clarify that that “official” classics list was referring to Citizen Kane and not Lord of the Rings. sorry for the confusion.
Yeah, RamMan agreed!
Lets make an official 100 movies every movie geek should see or have seen.
i would also love to see a series where every writer does a top ten of their personal favorite films.
I agree. everyone of us ..except the Geek in question should put a list of 50 movies that are manditory viewing and owning on DVD. compile the list and we can submitt it on the site. Then our boy can start getting caught up. You left out one important nail in the coffin..He hasn’t seen the films and he works in a video store!!!! He can have them on while he works!!!! I wish I could get paid to watch movies (Ok I kinda do )
This is going to break michelle’s Happening hissy fit blog! Tell you know who it doesnt count if you slept through the film! :)
also i hate when i type a comment and then it pops up after a new comment i didn’t see yet and it looks like I’m talking to the wrong person, haha. i’ve done that like twice today in the same thread already.
HE WORKS IN A VIDEO STORE?!!? wow, now I really can’t
defend him anymore. Sorry Charles.
Are we going to do a top 10, 50, or 100? I wish I could afford to work in a video store, I bet I wouldn’t be as bord as I am right now. At least I could watch something. Those damn mortgages!
I think a top 10 or top 50 list of “personal” favorites from each geek would be great. I think its sort of tricky and less interesting to make top 10 lists that “everyone should see” because not everyone has the same tastes. I agree with Brett about Citizen Kane not being the end all be all, but its on my top 10 list. I would love to share mine and see everyone else’s too.
As for the “geek in question” … I am thinking the scene from A Clockwork Orange when Alex is forcefully subjected to the audio-visual reeducation, restraints and eyelid locks included, to ensure proper absorption of ‘The Rings’
awesome. he won’t be seen at the Korova Milk Bar anytime soon…
I think not seeing any Harry Potter’s is completely forgivable because I took a stand back in high school and refused to read any of the books or see any of the movies… ever. But Lord of the Rings should be seen just because they are honest-to-God cinematic masterpieces. The statement about Braveheart is a little bit over the top, but I would let it go just because of the fact that everyone has their own obscure tastes. I will draw flack for this from you guys, but I pretty much despise everything Tarantino has done except for “From Dusk Till Dawn”. So I think HP isn’t anything to worry about, and Braveheart is a forgivable offense, but the LOTR trilogy must be seen.
why would you take a stand to never read Harry Potter? don’t let its popularity with young mainstream audiences fool you, it’s an amazing series (especially from book 4 onward), and the last book’s maturity and tone in particular are quite incredible. if you just refuse on some principle alone (especially since you like LOTR) you’ll definitely be missing out.
Brett said it right on. People assume because so many weirdos read Harry Potter and get so into it that it’s uncool to read the books, and that sort of thing really pisses me off. I love how the millions and millions of people who have read Harry Potter absolutely love the series, and the people that have not read the series will bash it and refuse to read or see it. I guess it is their loss, because again as Brett said, it is an amazing series.
Oh, I don’t read it because young kids read it or anything like that, I just thought it blew up too much into this whole ordeal that was bigger than it should have been. I think if anyone gets too excited over some books (Bible, Quaran, Dianetics, LOTR, Potter, Mein Kempf, D&D) there are always some terrible aspects to it. Not to compare LOTR, Potter, and D&D to religion but the fanatacism behind them all are definately comparable to some lengths. That’s why I refuse to read them.
Whoa! Wasn’t expecting that line of thought to arise from a casual debate on Harry Potter … I haven’t read HP either, but that’s due mainly to laziness and lack of time, directly connected to the number of movies I see in a given week. But principles like these being applied to Potter seems extreme. None-the-less, your comments are heard loud and clear. I give you points for standing your ground. One question, though … does this mean that Trekkies are secretly planning to take over the universe through mass fanatacism?
lol, You think Trekkies are still in the planning phase? Ignorance is bliss I suppose!
First of all, I plan on seeing the LOTR trilogy and I will probably most likely enjoy it. Second of all, I have never said I loved fantasy movies,Love is a serious word buddy!I LIKE fantasy films. Also to you, Ram Man,what the hell is up with this “fragile ego” crap and me being to young to see Orson Welles masterpiece,thats a load of BLEEP! Travis..no comment! Brett, for the short amount of time that you did defend me it was well appreciated! Who gives a flying poo if I work at a video store,I can’t watch movies while at work,ITS MT JOB Karl! Scott,I’m not bashing on you bro but you still need to catch up on some very important films that I bet you’ve never heard of.In fact I know you have never seen Citizen Kane, you give Travis and I shit about having seen so many GREAT films than you have never bothered to watch. You’ve probably only seen three criterion films being Armageddon,Robocop,and Chasing Amy which could be argued as for being on the Criterion Collection list. Now I am not saying EVERY MOVIE GEEK out there knows about or watches contemporary classics like I do but everybody is entitled to their own opinion about a movie and if they don’t enjoy watching certain types of films that you like or anybody else likes so be it! I’m not upset that you have never seen certain CLASSIC films that I savor. You are a movie geek yes indeed but to call me out was severely uncalled for! I’m not going to post up about how “You think you call yourself a movie geek” cause frankly I could care less what you watch so seriously think before you post dude.
This was a great post so you could get everybody riled up on how I’ve never seen Lord and Potter. This post has the most comments ever here at wearemoviegeeks.com!
Now lets think of a new topic..Why you don’t wear sandles when running up theater stairs, You might fall flat on your face, I’m sorry dude but I had to get you back for this.
Dude,You have to admit its pretty funny!
I’m awaiting some smart alec comment…
Charles: 1
Rest of WAMG: 0
where was this comeback all day?!
and you watch out Gavin, or the Potter fans might declare a holy war on you from atop their secret black temples of conspiracy. you know, or not. Travis makes an excellent point, a LOT of people like Star Wars and Indiana Jones and NBC’s The Office and Civil War Reenactments, do you boycott those too, or just things that require literacy? ooh, burnage. :)
that smiley face is a little too smug for my liking. i am, after all, only kidding.
Well, I have seen those three Criterion films, but i have seen many, many more as well buddy..here is the short list. The Blob, Midnight Cowboy, This is Spinal Tap, Hard-Boiled, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fear and Loathing, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Traffic, The Ice Storm, Hoop Dreams, Insomnia, Dazed and Confused, Dr Strangelove, Silence of the lambs, Last Temptation of christ, Sid and Nancy, Life of Brian..and many others.
There is no need to get defensive, this was simple how should we handle your having not seen the LOTR. Everyone pretty much agree’s that its a must see series and you should be ashamed for not seeing it. I have never given you and travis shit for watching films, i am giving you shit for having never bothered to watch a modern epic that came out when you were definitely old enough to have seen them. You are attempting to give me shit for not seeing a movie that came out 40+ years before i was even born. You said you enjoyed fantasy films, so dont use that as a defense to having not watched the trilogy.
I didnt fall flat on my face, i feel flag on my hands because i did catch myself. Here is another topic Chuck..Why you should never fuck with a movie geek that runs a big movie site after admitting to having never seen LOTR..i hope i dont forget to rsvp your dark knight seats.
Scott, not trying to call you out or nothing, but we need to talk about expanding your Criterion list a little buddy. Only two of those films listed was made prior to 1970. Granted, you’ve made some good viewing choices, but you haven’t even begun to truly enjoy the Criterion experience. Speaking of which, when is Tarantino going to get the freakin’ Crieterion treatment? I mean, Armaggedon, but no Pup Fiction!?!
I like your list, Scott. For me the LOTR trilogy is definitely a must-see for any geek. My inner geek was never more happier when I went to the big 12 hour marathon of all 3 movies in 2003. Panda Hugger witnessed my geeky meltdown when ROTK won the Oscar. Great soundtrack too!
Braveheart was epic….the kind of movie the Academy loves….a beautiful score from James Horner.
you are right my friend, I havent checked out any of the Criterion before 1970. I was just pointing out that I had seen far more than 3 of them..and Tarantino definitely needs to have something on the damn list! Its a disgrace.
Do I get geek points for owning the Criterion dvd of Armageddon?
I guess we rattle the cage long enough….I’m not ripping on working at a video store, for the simple fact I did for over three years. I’m just saying they typically have movies running all-day long, pop in LOTR. I don’t believe anyone is bashing anyone for having a prefference of what type of films people watch. I don’t if the Criterion crack was aim at me also…but I have seen the list scott mentioned among others .I have seen Citizen Kane 3 times. Finally the fragility issue..that goes back to being afraid of a color that would cause you not to comment (we also discussed at the movie). I do like a list compiled from everyone and call it the Holy Grail of Geekdom. Scott you can’t keep him from the Dark Knight..we’ll have another Lee Harvey on our hands, you’ll be dodging bullets leaving the theater.
Sound off, 1,2…Sound off, 3,4…as the accidental movie geek, I would like to say…Holy canoli, guys. You sure catch a lot of $#!^, Charles, but all in good fun, I’m sure! I guess I better come up with some kind of snack fest if Ram Man takes the 9 hour challenge…(for the ones who don’t know, that would be breakfast, second breakfast, elevenzies, etc.) It’s all good, though….we could all use a little (or a lot) of movie down time!!
hahaha, Ram Man’s right, Scott, care with that Dark Knight talk, you don’t want to end up on a modern Zapruder film. Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. Man, I love references.
also, you guys have to admit that this has been one of the best threads ever, no? nothing like a good old fashioned, down and dirty geek fight amongst friends.
speaking of dark knight screenings, scott, am I gonna get in on some of that or will I be the one crying alone like I just watched Batman and Robin on purpose?
its all in good fun guys..i am just giving chuckwick crap.
Brett, I am going to try and get you in on a dark knight screening..ill hit up a few people..you lucky la bastard.
haha, aces!
UPDATED SCORE
Charles: 1
Brett: 1 (strictly for using the Zapruder films in a comment)
Rest of WAMG: 0