This thread veered off course a bit, but hey, I do that all the time myself, so I'll chime in!
Love Story---yeah, I get it. It was a huge tear-jerker, a six-hanky chick flick, with two hot actors, a hit book, and a hit song. And the timing was right for a movie like that. There were also a million ripoff movies that followed, all trying to emulate the success of "Love Story." It was a cheap movie to make. Some were good, some bad. Most were made for TV. It's hard to picture a time before "that kind of movie" was made. And I don't mean to imply that it was the first of its kind. But after this film, we got at least 3 or 4 movies like it every year. It became an instant cliche. Watching it today, it feels a little bit like nominating "Twilight" for Best Pic.
Kim Basinger in LA Confidential---I really don't get it. I didn't at the time, and I just re-watched it last week on a movie channel, and I still don't get it. She gives a decent performance and looks absolutely beautiful as the sexy Veronica Lake lookalike, but nothing about her performance is Oscar-worthy. The role isn't Oscar-worthy either. There was nothing surprising or emotionally riveting about anything she did. I'm not saying she was bad at all. But I think people must have fallen in love with the 1940s throwback to the "femme fatale," even if so many performances from that era outdo hers in this film. To me, it's kinda like voting for Grace Kelly just because she's really pretty.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
