MY Love Film list is getting a bit short at the moment.
The Massive are great at suggesting movies that may have passed us by.

Below are a few of the movies that have been suggested and have been most enjoyable.

So if you have any new suggestions please feel free to suggest away - many thanks.

Murder On A Sunday Morning
Rocket Science
50/50
The Interrupters
Win Win
Tortilla Soup
The Guard

I do love a 60s or 70s movie where the film makers show how with it they are by having a groovy band play a number or two. Old favourites include Stone Ground in Dracula 1972 AD, The Flowerbuds in Carry on Camping and, of course, The Yardbirds in Blow Up.

This one that was new to me, from The Sorcerers which I watched last week. Evil hypnotists take over the mind of Ian Ogilvy, a charming but cold-hearted face on the London club scene, and it is there that we get to enjoy Lee Grant and The Capitols.

As I say, I love this stuff and there must be many more which I don’t know. Your suggestions please.

I have loved The Eagle Has Landed for as long as I can remember. It came out when I was 11 or 12, and I must have been taken to see it around that time. I still never seem to tire of watching it. I think I would probably name it as the first "grown up" film I watched, though there was plenty in it to interest a pre-adolescent schoolboy. Some of the images are indelibly stamped on my memory: The German soldier tangled up in the waterwheel - a delicious oak-wrap moment; Larry Hagman taking a bullet to the head, the blood spilling down his face...

It was a long time before I realised that Donald Sutherland wasn't Irish; I still come over all unnecessary when I see Jenny Agutter; and I still find myself rooting for the Germans, quietly being thrilled when the Americans are being trounced, and somehow still getting slightly nervous when the tables are turned.

Recently, I have had a renewed interest in it. I made a discovery that I hadn't realised before, and it has only made the affection I already had for it grow. I won't bore you with the details here, if you are interested you can read about it over at my "serious" place.

Do you have a film dear to your heart - your first grown up film? It's easy to say, "Yes, lots." I could name a few of my own: Jaws, When A Stranger Calls, The Omega Man, Gregory's Girl...

But, isn't there one that stands head and shoulders above the rest?

This looks a hoot

... Or your first X, if you work in old money.

I'm new here. This was a thread I tried on another forum that has run its course, so I thought I'd try it here.

What's the story behind the first 18 film you saw? What film was it and did you think it was any good? Have you seen it again since and changed your mind? How old were you when you saw it? Did you watch it with anyone? And anything else you can think of.

Mine was Robocop. At a guess I was 13 and my mum was away at an OU summer school. Looking after my sister and I was a bit of brave new world for my dad, so I think to make life easier for him (and, I guess, to buy my good behaviour for the week), he got this out of the local video shop for me when I asked. I loved it.

Watching it again in recent years, I think it's still a good film. Lots of excellent production design that really carries off the look and feel of a believable "near future", and a nice line in black comedy – both of which disappear in the sequels. A great '80s synth soundtrack too, if that's your thing.

And you?

..."Get some rest".

And, why, why oh why, do couples always kiss with a mouthful of food? Take a big bite of a burger, and then kiss. Ee-gads.

(We've done movie clichés before, I know, but who ever heard of magazines rehashing old topics, eh?)

Another great year for movies, with nearly 100 films released this year that I’ve seen that have had something to recommend them (as well as a number of others that don’t). Whittling this list down to 10 has been near impossible, but I’ve finally done it by selecting the 20 that I enjoyed the most (and those that stayed with me) and considering the merits of each. In another year, the 11-20 could comfortably have fitted into the top 10.

I don’t need to say it, but I will anyway – film is, like most things, very subjective so what appeals to me may annoy you – I tend to make my decisions about what to see by trusting a few critics (Kermode, Bradshaw, Ebert), and they rarely (though occasionally) let me down. So whilst I’m no film critic, if you’ve seen some of the films recommended and like them, you might take that as a recommendation to see something else you’ve yet to catch.

Before we hit my final 20, a word on the films worthy of mention that didn’t make the final list (continues in comments).

There is a piece in The Guardian that runs under the above title.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/08/pathetic-female-film...

However the oldest film listed is Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, released in 1984. Which means the list ignores about 3/4 of the history of cinema.

Would anyone care to nominate any pre-1984 characters?

At the moment I'm struggling to think of any really pathetic characters, but off the top of my head I'll suggest two Katherine Ross roles - Elaine in The Graduate and Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.

A while back there was a thread where you could ask questions that were bugging you in the hope it would jog the memory of someone on this blog who could help out by providing the answer.

The title of a particular film has been driving me nuts for thirty years or more. It's probably the first film I ever saw and I remember it very vividly (I think) and I would love to see it again but have no idea what it might be called. I saw it on TV so can't even guess when it was made, the closest I can estimate is it probably came out prior to 1970.

The climax as I remember it... (spoiler alert!)

There are two mountain climbers, one young and cocky, the other older and cautious. They are climbing a mountain and as they approach the peak they are faced with a valley criss-crossed with ice-bridges and there is no other way across. Only the older one can tell which bridge is strong enough to hold their weight.

He picks the right one, they reach the peak. Coming down again they come to the same spot. Having conquered the mountain the now over-confident young one rushes ahead to an ice bridge and begins to cross. The older one warns him that it's not the right bridge. The young one ignores him and plummets to his death. The end.

My question is this, what frigging film is this?

The only other clue I have is it might have been produced by Paramount as I seem to remember the last shot was of the mountain that dissolved into a logo of a mountain which whould make it Paramount. However I may have misremembered that.

Thank you for reading this far and God bless you if you can help!

Part 1 http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/non-conformist-opinions-lots-films

12 Monkeys 10 out of 10
A great film, one of my all time favourites. There's nothing to say as everything about it ranges from good to exceptional. Whatever negatives I can come up with are pointless niggles that don't matter.

The Man With Two Brains 8
I've never really liked this movie before. It started fine but quickly ran out of steam and was rather boring in my opinion. Or so it has been until now. For some reason I enjoyed it this time, properly enjoyed it from start to finish. It's a gloriously silly movie and often very funny. Certainly not a masterpiece but a very solid comedy.

Christie Malry's Own Double Entry 3
For me it’s an interesting story told with a decent script but a bad lead actor and a weak director. With an actor who can conjure up some charisma and a visually stylish director (think Brian De Palma) this could have been really good. As it is, I find it to be a bit of a plodding bore. I wouldn’t describe it as entertaining or even particularly thought provoking. The movie is often edited like a Nicholas Roeg film. That means two or three scenes are intercut with each other to draw out connections between past, present and future. I don’t think it really adds anything to the film, but at the same time I don’t think it does any harm. The editing is done in a nuts and bolts way and not with any great style or flash.

I’ve been keeping a list of every film I’ve watched for a little over a year. This is the first half of that list.

I’ll wait to see what way the arseholes are blowing before publishing the second half. No one needs to waste their time pointing out that it’s geeky.

Warning: Includes opinions on films I didn’t watch to the end. Some might be offended by this.

Sherlock Holmes (2009 Guy Ritchie film) 1 out of 10
Rubbish. Gave up after an hour (the bath death scene) as it was clearly not going to get any better. Very weak script that was too linear with little actual investigative stuff. Also the action was poorly filmed and out of place.

Children Of Men 6
A film to admire more than love. Technically impressive if rather indifferent action scenes, usually filmed in long unbroken takes. So-so ending as I didn't even know the final action scene was the climax, I was thinking at the time that it was a pointless diversion that should have been removed! V For Vendetta, which has a similar fascist Britain setting, is a better film as it had clear bad guys with clear motives.

Shutter Island 3
Pretty beige movie. Doesn't really come together and the direction was rather drab and subdued. The ending was nothing great either. Just really indifferent overall. It held my attention, but beyond that there's nothing else positive to say. A minor film at best.

A Lot Like Love 6
The first hour is really good but it runs out of forward motion as soon as they go on a road trip out into the desert. The problem is that the end point of the plot becomes vague and it descends into fairly random scenes so it becomes meandering. The film should have ended when Kutcher plays the Bon Jovi song to her. For no obvious reason they threw up a needless roadblock (her engagement) which just meant we had to sit through another ten minutes for them to get together properly in the next sequence.

Kick-Ass 9
Very well made "real life" comic book movie with excellent stylised action scenes. The director's previous film, Layer Cake, did not suggest he was capable of something this good so this was a very pleasant surprise. Curiously violent with proper death being dealt out to the bad guys.

Just watched the Graduate recently and was really struck at how much hatred is leveled at older folks in it. In fact, the movie is predicated on the notion that older people are ugly, stupid and self-centred.

Am betting they don't feel that way now. But then, slapping themselves on the back has never been a baby boomer weakness.

At least the music's fab.

You know the one. You don't even remember how you came across it, but when you watched it, it completely bowled you over - but you've never had anybody to talk to about it because when you do either their eyes glaze over, or they say, "ooh, I must see that..."

Tell us about it. Either we can enthuse about it, too, and you'll know you weren't the only one who saw it. Or we can go, "ooh, I must see that..."

Mine in the comments.

I re-watched the Police Academy movies for the first time in a lot of years.

Police Academy (1984)
A little crude and certainly not a work of comic genius but amusing enough with a few big laughs - the podium gag left me with tears. The riot ending didn't amount to much, not that it really matters. A likeable movie.

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985)
It's a weak film and distinctly average at its very best. It's too innocuous and blandly indifferent to be anything other than harmlessly watchable. I enjoyed it and there are a few laughs in it. Some of the gags seemed a bit unfinished, like the beach chase at the start that begins and then suddenly ends with the rival jeep crashing into the water. There's a distinct lack of an actual proper joke or punchline to the scene. The crash itself isn't enough on its own. Many scenes feel like this, as though they cut away from the scene before it gets to the final joke or gets to make its point. So the movie has an odd incomplete quality to it in some ways.

Police Academy 3: Back In Training (1986)
Very, very crude movie. You can tell it was quickly, and slapdashly, put together. It makes the first two films look like works of exquisite craftsmanship in comparison as it's so poorly put together. The plot is weak even for a comedy like this. It plays like a series of bad to average sketches edited together in almost random order. At most there's one or two minor laughs in it, and way too many scenes that just don't work. The new characters are either given no screen time (the rich recruit and Mahoney's love interest) or nothing to do (Fackler's wife) so make no impact and it's easy to see why they didn't make it into any of the sequels. The only exception is the Chinese cop who had a small role in part four as well. I also noticed that Tackleberry gets very little to do in this one, and barely makes an appearance during the climax. The action sequences were very poorly filmed.

Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol (1987)
Much better than the third one. Much more convincing as an actual movie with some hint of a plot, and not just a bunch of weak sketches. I was really enjoying the first half, but the second half wasn't as strong. There's a few decent laughs in it, such as the scene with Proctor being moved by crane in a portable toilet. The action scene at the end with the biplanes and the hot air balloons was too badly filmed to be funny. Again the love interest of Mahoney barely gets any screen time, and in this case is only memorable because she is played by Sharon Stone. Maybe not quite as good as the second film, but close.

Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach (1988)
Has a better plot than the others with lots of comic potential. Even the action climax was well filmed and not tacked on as a random ending. The film is solid and often amusing. Although there were no big laughs there were very few dud jokes, so the ratio of good to bad was high for once. The love interest of Nick (the Mahoney replacement) was a noticeably bad actress who often spent too much time posing instead of just being.

Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989)
I've always had a fondness for this film as it has a nice overt comic book quality to it, with more out there situations and broader jokes and characters. Visually the film recalls Batman from the same year. There's a few decent jokes and it has a more interesting story than usual. The final fight between the three evenly matched characters seemed poorly edited as they were each shown one after the other in full, instead of being cross-cut with each other, which I think would have made more sense. At least in this movie they didn't waste time with a love interest for the Nick character. It's not quite as good as the previous film.

Police Academy 7: Mission To Moscow (1994)
I disliked it when I saw it in the cinema* so I knew to lower my expectations for this one. It's really, really bad. The jokes are bad, the script is bad and for no obvious reason they've dubbed a lot of loud over the top comedy sound effects onto everything. Even the opening credits are in a totally different format and style to the rest of the series. I can imagine five year olds killing themselves with laughter, but I can't imagine anyone else finding it funny. By far the worst film in the series. I gave up 33 minutes in when Michael Winslow as Jones is being shot at while he rides a bike. The complete lack of an actual joke to the scene made me realise that I didn't have the stomach to sit through anymore of this rubbish.

In my opinion the order of best to worst goes: 1, 5, 6, 2, 4, 3 and then 7.

Any opinions on the films you'd like to share?

* I saw the full movie back in 1994 so I think it's acceptable that I have an opinion on a film I didn't finish [a reference to an older thread].

I've been getting it in the neck elsewhere on the internet for having opinions about movies that were so boring/rubbish that I didn't finish them.

Is it wrong to voice an opinion on a film in these circumstances? It's not like I'm deceiving anybody by pretending that I did finish it.

I'm truly incapable of seeing the evil in hating a film, giving up half an hour in and then telling other people that I hated it and had to give up half an hour in. I really can't see the crime. Others though appear to be massively insulted by this.

Years ago I watched the first 45 minutes of Heaven's Gate. I know it's a turd based on what I saw. Why do I have to watch all four hours of it before it's acceptable for me to call it a turd? A turd that I will always point out, as it's a very, very important part of why it's a turd, that I gave up 45 minutes in. The opinion of someone who was unable to suffer to the end of a movie is as valid as someone who got to the end; as the failure to get the end is a very good indication of how good or bad it was.

Am I wrong? Do you have to watched all of a bad film before you're allowed to voice an opinion?

An interesting, but unrelated article about bad movies by Joe Queenan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/mar/21/1