I just watched Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) for the first time yesterday. It's a pretty forgettable movie overall, but 3/4 of the segments were somewhat enjoyable, at least.

Then there's "Kick the Can"...

That was one of the cringiest sequences that I've seen in a big Hollywood film. I was pretty shocked to learn that it was directed by Spielberg right in his prime, coming off the back of Raiders and ET.

I haven't watched everything Spielberg has directed, but even with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in mind, Kick the Can is 100% the worst thing I've seen from him. Just a complete dumpster fire.

What would you rate as Spielberg's worst directorial effort?

I was watching Crazy, Stupid, Love the other day, and the storyline where Steve Carrell’s character has a son who claims he’s “in love with his babysitter” and goes through great lengths to try and win her love even after she keeps turning him down and tells him he’s making her uncomfortable.

However, by the end of the move despite his creepy obsession over her. He is given hope where there might be a chance for him to be with her when he’s older. It didn’t feel like a great message to tell the audience, that it’s okay to make women uncomfortable enough that if you keep pushing how much “you love them” that they’ll give in and come to you with “mutual affections”.

Basically telling you to never take “no” for an answer. That’s not love, that’s entitlement.

Scenes that could be self contained as their own short films or that got you hyped for the rest of the movie etc you get the idea. The first two that come to mind for me are Scream (the first one in particular) which has just an iconic first scene that imo might be Wes Cravens finest piece of work (hard to say though)

Inglorious Basterds also has an incredible first scene.

The Dark Knight also comes to mind but I’ll stop, I wanna hear your favorites.

I don’t mean quick cameos; I’m thinking about actors who had smaller roles and chewed up every second that they were on screen. The examples that immediately come to my mind are McConaughey in Wolf of Wall Street, Dennis Hopper and Gary Oldman in True Romance, John Turturro in The Big Lebowski, Tom Cruise as “Les Grossman” in Tropic Thunder, and to me, Billy Bob Thornton in Tombstone.

Just rewatched Wolf of Wall Street and McConaughey’s iconic scene had me thinking about this.

What do y’all think?

With Dreamworks jumping on the live action remake gravy train with ‘How to Train Your Dragon' the question becomes what’s next?

I’ll go first:

Ratatouille

It would be awful. Realistic rats in a restaurant would lose all the cuteness Remy and friends have. Although I’m not sure this small detail would stop Disney.

Joel Schumacher’s career is one of the most eclectic in recent movie history (though a bit inconsistent, if we’re being honest).

One film of his that stands out to me the most is 8MM, a film which has a mercilessly grim and unflinching look at the seedy underworld of L.A., with a crazy colourful array of characters filled out by a tremendous cast. I feel 8MM is most notable for its intense atmosphere and amazing performances. But it seems as though it wasn’t well received by critics, and it’s not mentioned much these days.

Peter Stormare’s turn as Dino Velvet, the sleaziest producer of smut to ever grace the screen, is probably the element I think back on the most:

*Tom Welles : You motherfuckers, you SMALL-TIME motherfuckers, you want to know something, while you are all still small-time with a million-dollars to split around!

Dino Velvet : A million?

Tom Welles : Yeah, that's what Christian gave Longdale, and that's what he gave you right, a million in cash? STUPID FUCKIN' TRASH!

Dino Velvet : What the hell is he talkin' is he talking about DOLLARS HERE?

Daniel Longdale : No he is Lying!

Eddie Poole : Did you fuck me? Hey did you fuck me on this?

Dino Velvet : Of course not Edward.

Eddie Poole : Then why is he talking about a million dollars?

Dino Velvet : He is saying that Longdale fucked us, which is so totally and completely bizarre.*

Exchanges like this have a sick and twisted dark humor to them (which Stormare so often excels at), and the film is carried by the performances in scenes like this. It’s peppered with great moments throughout. It’s one of those movies that makes you feel like you’re going on that journey alongside the main character. The movie is bleak and cynical, and it’s uneven in spots with imagery that goes a little overboard in trying to depict society’s depraved underbelly, but I think it’s worthy of discussion nonetheless.

Has anyone else seen this movie? It's sort of like The Matrix but kinda better, imo. It's based on a book called Simulacron-3 which I admittedly have never read (on my list, though). I don't think this movie got nearly enough attention and is now one of my favorite movies right up there with The Matrix and Dark City.

in 1997 Abre Los Ojos was released. This Spanish film was remade and released in 2001 as Vanilla Sky and starred Penelope Cruz where she reprised her role but this time was alongside her then beau Tom Cruise. Has this ever happened before when someone reprised their role in a different language?

If so what are your favorite examples?

Some fans of the Truman Show might know what I’m talking about, but apparently there was a 60 minute long mockumentary that took place in the Truman Show universe.. it was called “TruTalk”. They explored the world outside of the Truman show set and did interviews with the “cast”. However this apparently only aired on Nick at night and was only briefly on YouTube 10 years ago before it was taken down.

Does anyone have a copy of this?? I would love to see it!