forrest gump Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I like to pride myself on having a pretty good memory for classic films, but man, my powers of recollection are nothing up against a dedicated film fan by the name of whoiseyevan. A couple of weeks ago I brought you his reworked Ghostbusters trailer as a 1954 classic starring Bob Hope and Dean Martin, and now he's back at work making trailers for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Forrest Gump as if they had been made in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

First up is Raiders, which was an ode to adventure serials of the '30's, but for the remake we've jumped ahead about thirty years. Now, it stars Charlton Heston as Dr. Jones, Anthony Quinn as Sallah, and the great Peter Lorre as everyone's favorite melty-face Nazi, Toht. Once again, you have to marvel at whoiseyevan's ability to find the perfect clips, and if you're as familiar with Raiders as I am, you will spot plenty of scenes that are almost identical -- right down to the monkey.

Now, transplanting Forrest Gump back to 1949 might have been a little bit easier, and it should come as no shock that Jimmy Stewart is standing in for Tom Hanks (especially since Hanks as been called our generation's Stewart on more than one occasion). Which would also explain how whoiseyevan might have selected some of these clips, because Stewart played a lovable man-child more than once during his career. For Gump, most of the clips look like they were taken from It's a Wonderful Life, but there are a few surprises to be had, including who gets to take over the role of Lt. Dan -- which I won't spoil for you because, frankly, it's genius.

After the jump: a trip back in time with Dr. Jones and Forrest Gump...

Personally, I'm of the belief that there should always be exactly one sequel to Forrest Gump. Said sequel, Forrest Gump 2: Gump Again, has already been made. This baby lives inside the maniac world of John Waters and Cecil B. Demented, and it stars Kevin Nealon. It's totally ludicrous, and luckily only a brief blip inside another film, rather than a full-length, big-buzzed feature.

It looks like that's all we will get, courtesy of 9/11. While talking with screenwriter Eric Roth about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, /film asked about long-in-gestation sequel Gump & Co. It seems he whipped up a sequel back in 2001, one that would continue with the story just two minutes after the original ended, and handed it in on September 10, 2001. Then came 9/11, and it was decided that the sequel was no longer relevant. "The world had changed. Now time has obviously passed, but maybe some things should just be one thing and left as they are."

Hear, hear.* Forrest Gump is an interesting film, one that's been doused with praise and derision, enough to make me pretty sure that any sequel wouldn't work as well as the first. There's just too much expectation in the air -- both positive and negative. Then again, maybe I say that because I'm not a big fan of the first. What say you?

*Edited

Today we salute the military veterans who have either served in wartime or in peace. I think technically Veteran's Day specifically honors war veterans, but I don't see why the non-combat military personnel needs to be excluded. Still, in the movies, it's the war vets that are most memorable, and on this holiday, I'd like to present my list of seven favorites.

Obviously this list isn't comprehensive -- in fact, I don't feature any examples of the now-stereotypical Vietnam vet character, which would include Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July or Gary Senise in Forrest Gump. This is just a list of characters, positive and negative, that I prefer and which I think somewhat represents the wide and diverse scope of war vets.


"Homer Parrish" from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)

About fifty years before Robert Zemeckis was digitally removing Gary Senise's legs to make him the disabled vet Lt. Dan of Forrest Gump, William Wyler directed a real amputee veteran named Harold Russell as the handicapped character Homer Parrish in this movie about the difficulty of coming home following World War II. Russell actually won an Oscar for his performance as Parrish, a former high school quarterback who returns to his childhood sweetheart, with whom he's engaged and for whom he no longer feels good enough. The actor/character has hooks for hands and appears in some sappy, obligatory scenes where he has trouble with them, but he ends up a guy that is beloved more than pitied, and it's almost easy to forget he has the handicap, especially after hearing him play piano with the false limbs.

"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." - Groucho Marx

That famous line is one of Groucho's best, but it is always attributed as being un-sourced. Did he actually say it? Was he in fact mis-quoted? Where did the line come from? I guess it doesn't matter. But if you're planning to dress up as Groucho for Halloween this year, you'll be wanting to memorize some of his lines, because doing an impersonation is necessary for certain costumes, such as that one. Last year I dressed up as Harpo instead of Groucho, because I'm terrible at remembering exact lines, always mis-quoting people and characters; for Harpo all I needed was to close my mouth and honk my horn.

Anyway, there's a new list over at The List Universe laying out the 15 most mis-quoted or mis-remembered lines in cinema, and I thought it would come in handy to any of you dressing up as movie characters this October 31. Going as Dracula? Don't say, "I want to suck your blood." Or as Tarzan? Don't incorrectly utter the words, "Me Tarzan, you Jane." Other famously mis-quoted lines come from Casablanca, Star Wars, Star Trek, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Frankenstein, Apollo 13, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, She Done Him Wrong, Blonde Crazy and White Heat (poor, mis-quoted Cagney!). Sure, a few of them are just barely off the mark, and I think the list is being a bit picky with the Forrest Gump quote, but nonetheless these are lines we think were spoken, yet they never were -- except the Sherlock Holmes one, it seems.

Of course, most of the films come from a time before we could re-watch movies over and over again on VHS or DVD. However, a few were released in the modern, repeat-viewable era. Either way, it is strange how all of these mis-quotes became so commonly attributed and how they exist so prominently within the popular consciousness -- enough that parodies tend to mis-parody the mis-quotes, such as one of my favorite lines from UHF, "Badgers? Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers." I guess maybe it wouldn't be as funny if the movie had correctly imitated The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by instead using the longer, " "Badgers? We ain't got no badgers. We don't need no badgers. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badgers!"

Over on his blog at the Chicago Tribune, critic Michael Phillips (a very nice and knowledgable guy who James Rocchi and I chatted with at Sundance earlier this year) has a fun piece up on movies that he's walked out on. Then he asked a bunch of Tribune staffers to share what films they've walked out on.

Some of the picks are predictable -- Evita, Reservoir Dogs (one of my own least favorite movies of all time, though I actually sat through the entire violent mess), and Forrest Gump (blech) are on there, along with a few I wouldn't have thought of, like Prince's Under the Cherry Moon and Cat People, which I remember watching with a certain fondness as a midnight movie on TV in my youth (it wasn't that bad, was it?)

I'm one of those sadistic movie fans who will generally force myself to sit through anything, even at a film fest, when a lot of folks will slip out with the excuse that they need to catch something else that's overlapping a film they really just want to walk out on anyhow. I generally try to avoid up front seeing a film I know I'm really going to hate, but sometimes I'm assigned to review something, and it can't be helped -- I just have to suffer through it so I can write the damn review. Here are a few movies, though, that I suffered through but wish I hadn't. If only I'd known then that even print folks at a place like the Tribune walk out on films, I might have saved myself some misery ...

As much as I complain about CGI in movies, I do recognize and respect the few films that have used computer effects well. The truth is, some bad movies have great digital effects that go under-appreciated, which is far more tragic than the so-so movies that are ruined by weak CGI. Sure, Tron is a guilty pleasure for me and many others, but its only real worth is in its place in film history. Other movies that are important for their advancement of digital effects include Forrest Gump, Cliffhanger and The Perfect Storm -- none of which needs to be thought of for any other reason.

Popular Mechanics has listed these four films with six other (better) milestones. Many of them are not surprises; everybody thinks of Terminator 2: Judgment Day when thinking of significant digital effects, even though it wasn't even the first movie to feature morphing (Willow is not included in the ten, but it is referenced). Jurassic Park is also obvious, but then, this isn't really an opinion-based list. It is a chronological top ten based on real, monumental breakthroughs. There are a few on the list, such as Cliffhanger, that I didn't even know were of importance. Did you know it was the first film to use digital effects as an eraser?

So, I may have to take a look at this list whenever I'm about to curse the existence of computer effects. A lot of the worst effects are appropriately featured in movies that are already terrible, anyway (personally, I think The Lord of the Rings and its CGI fall into this worst/terrible category, but I probably shouldn't be admitting this, especially since it is on the list).

What do you think was the most important advancement in special effects history (pre-digital era included)?

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I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)

As Michael mentioned in the comments section of Kim's Oscar Round-up post, the reason behind the stunning, live TV revelation that Tom Hanks is not a saint (He swears? He gets mad?! But ... but ... he's Tom Hanks!) has supposedly been revealed: it turns out that he hates Forrest Gump as much as we do.

According to Defamer, Hanks had been promised that he was going to be played onto the stage with a lovely tune that was very much NOT the Forrest Gump theme. When the time came for his big entrance, however, the music was all Gump, all the time. (At least, that's what it says in the article -- since I wouldn't know the theme to Forrest Gump if it came up and punched me in the face, I'm going to have to take Defamer's word on this one.) Hanks is of the opinion that he's "moved beyond" that movie (yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Forrest),so  he was really, really, pissed, and chose to express himself by swearing in front of millions of people.

So, there you go -- a possible explanation, at least. Whether it's true, of course, is something else entirely.