Movies You Have A Love/Hate Relationship With

[Cena's Little Helper]

Define the love/hate relationship anyway you wish to. To me, having a love/hate relationship with a film means that you have a low opinion of it for a very good reason yet can't deny the fact that is it brilliant in some other aspect. My greatest love/hate relationship is with A Clockwork Orange.

Why I hate A Clockwork Orange: By omitting the last chapter of Anthony Burgess's book from his adaptation, Stanley Kubrick fails to convey his source material's ultimate message: as we grow older and become more mentally mature, we find no need to express our individuality through destructive acts. This isn't to say that assault and rape should be expected and condoned male pastimes of Western civilization (A Clockwork Orange is definitely an exaggeration in terms of what such individuals do at that age), but I don't think any of us here can deny that we all did stupid shit when we were younger that we would take no pleasure in doing now (e.g., egging houses, crank calling, tagging fences, etc.). Alex is not meant to be some incorrigible, inherently evil menace to society. Stanley Kubrick does those who idolize this film a great disservice by not being faithful to his source material.

Why I love A Clockwork Orange: Even with my one major concern, I cannot deny that Kubrick did a flawless, breath-taking job at making Burgess's dystopian Britain a disturbing cinematic reality. Since a picture says a thousand words, I'll leave you with this scene, one that had me spellbound for over 25 minutes as I watched over and over last night on IFC (it also just struck that this particular scene is also the inspiration for one of South Park's most infamous scenes; you'll know which one):

[YOUTUBE]DAB0WzTnMl4[/YOUTUBE]​

 

[Phoenix]

My first introduction to A Clockwork Orange started off as a love/hate relationship, especially as A-Level Media Censorship studies were only an hour long. Because of this scenario, after seeing the first hour of ACO, I hated it because I felt the action, violence, rape, etc was hard to watch and I didn't think I could get through the rest of the film; a week later and the rest of the film, I loved it! The reason for the change of heart was because I found all the events of the first half were justified by what happened in the second and helped provide a great sense of how the story worked and the effects of cause and consequence.

Definitely one of the classics to love and certainly an interesting one because of how my opinion was changed based around seeing a film in two halves than in one go. It's one of my favourites in my DVD collection and I definitely recommend anyone to watch it, but I always find my first experience of the film to be an interesting one.

 

[DarksideEric]

Superhero movies.

I love them because I'm a big fan of superheroes, namely Marvel and X-Men to be specific. Every now and then I'll want a hero movie fix, and sometimes I won't be in the mood to catch the Avengers franchise (Iron Man, Thor, Captain, Hulk or Avengers themselves) so I'll pull out some of the other Marvel flicks or a DC one. I just like heroes enough to be like "alright, I've not seen this one in a while so... might as well."

I hate them for how badly some of them have been done, specifically in the X-Men/Wolverine franchise and Spider-Man 3. Whenever I finish watching say, X-Men: First Class, I question why I sat down and actually watched it again.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

The Langoliers

Technically, The Langoliers was a mini series on TV, but they released it as a movie (removing the commercial breaks to cut the runtime down to 2+ hours on DVD).

Anyway, I loved the novella, when I read it years ago, and I bought the DVD afterwards. Stephen King's kooky cameo is cringeowrthy, but The Langoliers had a shot a top five spot for Stephen King adaptations.

Solid cast (Bronson Pinchot is a riot), eerie and creepy set pieces, and Tom Holland did a phenomenal job of building suspense for the arrival of The Langoliers, because you can feel a strong sense of terror and urgency for a solution from the main characters.....and then The Langoliers actually show up.

Honestly, I've seen a lot of movies with bad CGI, but the CGI for The Langoliers is just appalling. Just as bad, if not worse than a SyFy channel original/abomination, and that's saying something. The Langoliers are supposed to inspire fear, but The Langoliers in the 1995 film/mini series are laughable. It's so bad, The Langoliers goes from a potential B+ film to an easy D-. Yes, the CGI is that bad.

Night Of The Demons 2

There are no words to describe how much I love the original Night Of The Demons 1988. I was still in high school, when I started the series, and I was nervous about the sequel, because most sequels (especially horror sequels) are shit 85% of the time.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed Night Of The Demons 2. Right off the bat, I could tell they put a good amount of effort into the storyline with Angela returning to tempt her younger sister towards the dark side.

Usually, straight-to-video sequels are lazy as shit with storytelling (that piece of shit Fright Night 2: New Blood), because they're looking for a quick buck from devoted fans, and they'll take advantage of the name for more sequels. Merle Kennedy's Mouse/Melissa is hilarious, and Amelia Kinkade is still sharp as Angela. And they never explained the reasons behind it, but the sword was a nice touch for Angela's character.

Although, Shirley Finnerty is one the most unbearably annoying and unlikeable characters in the entire franchise. They tried to recreate Angela's dance scene from the first film, and the end result is an epic failure (the shitty and generic rock music in the background didn't help anything, and Angela pouring a bowl of punch on herself? Egads). On top of that, Angela's "death" is anticlimactic and embarrassing. Video proof:

[YOUTUBE]JuFdpF4oeYc[/YOUTUBE]

The Shining

Stephen King hates Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, and he won't back down from his stance at all. A part of me believes King is jealous. A lot of horror aficionados and experts praise The Shining as one of the best horror films of all time AND the best Stephen King adaptation ever, with Brian De Palma’s Carrie, Misrey, and other King novels in the mix.

With all that said, I understand a lot of King's criticisms. Of course, I think King is going too far, when he criticizes Shelly Duvall's Wendy, as "one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film," but I'll admit the constant screaming and stupidity is annoying at times. On top of that, in the book, the supernatural elements have a stronger presence. The supernatural side of the film is regulated to background status.

Still, Kubrick's Shining is an iconic horror film, and you can't deny that. So many memorable images (the long take shot with Danny on his big wheel, "Come play with us, Danny", the blood flowing out of the elevator, "Here's, Johnny!"), and Kubrick's disturbing and chilling portrayal of madness in an isolated setting is simply hypnotic. Over thirty years later, and people are still dissecting and analyzing the underlying meanings in The Shining. That's unreal. And Jack's performance is just great, one of the best in his career, easily.

[YOUTUBE]WFnCLenXkoA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Reflection]

Porn movies featuring former WWE Diva Joanie Laurer a.k.a Chyna.

The Love: I'm a big fan of her and have watched almost every movie of hers, namely- One Night in Chyna, Another Night in Chyna, Backdoor to Chyna, Chyna is Queen of the Ring, and a bit of Avengers XXX: A Porn Parody. She is the only female wrestler I know who has joined this business, apart from Shelly Martinez in "The Notorious Shelly Martinez and Jewel DeNyle" (and Yes, I've watched that too ), so being a wrestling fan, there tends to be a natural and involuntary attraction towards the divas, even if I'm sure the end product may not be satisfactory... which brings me to...

The Hate: As those of us that have watched her movies (even a bit of it) are aware, they may get quite disturbing at times... so the viewer has to stay prepared for that. Also, her acting skills are still quite green; and her response/reaction to stimulation (so to speak) is not up to the mark either. But one would not dislike them much if they (a) are a fan of hers, and (b) weren't expecting much to begin with.