So our resident papist Joel (yeah I didn't forget about you, Fly, but he's the one that tagged me) tagged me with another movie meme. This one's a little different from the previous ones::
Pick out your ten favorite movies, then look them up at IMDb. In the overview at the top of each movie's page, there are "Plot Keywords," usually five of them. (Plus more, if you click the link.) Take the first five, and post them. Then the rest of us get to play movie buff and see if we can guess them.Joel added a little commentary to his, I might do that, we'll see how it develops. Also, they don't seem, for me at least, to be on the top of the page, but you can scroll down to "plot keywords"
These are not in a particular order, except in the order I thought of them. I originally thought I might pick five movies that people know well and five obscure ones, but it didn't turn out that way. Not exactly, anyway. Probably few will surprise anyone who has read my (very few) previous movie posts, and the most obvious one for me is not on the list because Joel used it as his number one. But with a couple of beers down and more to go before dinner, here is my meme:
1. Kidnapping / Suicide Attempt / Capital Punishment / Courtroom / Murder
(Hmm. This one could get really tough)
2. Torture / Treaty / Male Rape / Interrogation / Diplomacy
(Hmm. I did not expect to see "male rape", and the others don't seem to give much in the way of clues)
3. Army / Germany / North Africa Campaign / Stars And Stripes / Historical
(This one probably not so tough)
4. Gunfight / Homesteader / Rancher / Samurai / You Talkin To Me?
(Uh, "samurai"? "You talking to me"? It's neither Seven Samurai nor Taxi Driver, and I'm still trying to figure out where those came from)
5. Battle Scene / Period Piece / Corporal Punishment / Barefoot / Military
(Wow, not much help there I don't think)
6. Man Hunt / Bounty Hunter / Rat / Maverick / Amazing Grace Hymn
(I'm starting to think that people punch in random keywords in random order; I mean, those kinda fit, except for "Amazing Grace" - I may have to watch this again to see why)
7. Slit Throat / Confession / Tied Up / Appeal / Attempted Rape
(Man. Sounds like Saturday night internet surfin' when the wife's not home)
8. Middle Class / Humor / Husband Wife / Heist / Cynical
(Okay, finally a set that fits well. Too bad for you it's not very well known)
9. Scientist / Laser / Baby / Terminal Illness / Alien
(Could be tough)
10. Train Station / Con / Poker Player / Tough Guy / Caper
(Hmm. This one could be tough too)
Anyhoo, drop your guesses in the comments.
I suppose I'm required to tag people. Joel tagged ten people, so I'm tagging:
My lovely friend Julie
The lovely CalTechGirl
The lovely Bitter Bitch
The lovely Physics Geek
The lovely Dave E
The lovely Wunderkraut
The lovely Alan
The lovely Hoodlumman
The lovely Rob B.
The lovely, brilliant, and knocked up Tree Hugging Sister
UPDATE: I have a couple of minutes free, so here are the answers guessed so far:
2. Lawrence of Arabia - Guessed by BillAnd I think I should perhaps go into hiding before THS buys the plane ticket...
3. Patton - Guessed by Rob B., Nightfly, and Angie
4. Shane - Guessed by Angie (Man, that "samurai" really threw people!)
5. Glory - Guessed by Nightfly
8. Fun with Dick and Jane - Guessed by Julie and wRitErsbLock (and hats off to you both!)
10. The Sting - Guessed by Bill and Nightfly
Here are the ones no one guessed:
1. The Onion Field
6. True Grit - little surprised no one got this one
7. In Cold Blood
9. The Andromeda Strain - just a little surprised about this one too
Thank you all for playing and we have some lovely parting gifts for you...
Posted by Ken S at May 16, 2007 08:48 PM | TrackBack (0) |My guesses:
#3 is Patton
#4 is Unforgiven
#10 is Oceans 12
So how wrong is all of that?
Is 2 Lawrence of Arabia? (There are only so many movies with male rape, after all)
10 could be The Sting, I seem to remember a poker game on a train, which probably wound up in a station at some point.
I'm guessing 3 is Casablanca, 4 could be The Magnificent Seven, 7 may be Sling Blade, 8 sounds like Fun with Dick and Jane... Oh hell, I don't have time for this, I have to do my own! :-P
Posted by: Julie at May 17, 2007 05:31 AMRob got one, Bill got two
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 17, 2007 05:33 AMJulie got the one I expected no one to get.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 17, 2007 05:37 AMOK, mine's up!
(How do y'all make it a link? I are computer illiterate...)
That's how you make it link, Julie. If I try and type out the code to show you, it wouldn't show up. But you can find it here. I hope that helps. - Emily
Posted by: Julie at May 17, 2007 05:48 AMThese are incredibly difficult. I had to cheat on a couple of Rob's (at fileitunder) just to get an idea - this is an extremely high degree of difficulty game.
It's easier if you know your subject but some of the keywords are barely relevant, IMO.
Posted by: Hoodlumman at May 17, 2007 06:30 AM#4 - Pale Rider
I'll see if I can figure out what my ten fav movies are...
Posted by: Alan K. Henderson. civility coach for Ann Coulter and Bill Maher at May 17, 2007 07:11 AMI can't guess what hasn't already been guessed at, but I did go ahead an do the meme also.
Posted by: Cullen at May 17, 2007 07:33 AMThanks Emily!
Ken,
If you mean the Magnificent Seven, I thought everyone knew it was based on Akiro Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai", starring the incredible Toshiro Mifune. If you didn't know that and/or haven't seen it, rent it! It's a truly great film.
I should have mentioned that it's also not Magnificent Seven, and yes, I've seen it and reviewed it (after a fashion).
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 17, 2007 08:04 AMIs #2 Pulp Fiction?
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at May 17, 2007 08:15 AM8 could be Fun with Dick and Jane
Posted by: wRitErsbLock at May 17, 2007 08:16 AMWith the word "diplomacy" included, I think we can rule out Pulp Fiction. Besides, I doubt Ken's seen that, and if he has, I seriously doubt it would be a favorite of his. Correct me if I'm wrong, Ken.
Posted by: Emily at May 17, 2007 08:17 AMNot wrong at all. And I'm amazed that two people got #8.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 17, 2007 08:28 AMMine are up, too - and agreed on the insanity of the descriptions. As I wrote, it's like the same people who voted for Sanjaya also wrote up the plot keys for the movies. I will be astounded if anyone gets my #7 without resorting to the spoiler clues.
BTW, no offense taken, Ken; I've always thought of myself as more of a Very Special Guest Papist.
#3 is Patton
#5 is Glory
#6 I want to say Midnight Run, and in defiance of common sense, it may be right
#10 (already guessed) I also thought it was The Sting.
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This thread is dedicated to the memory of our former friend, Mr. Summers.
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Find his official obit (and many wonderful others!!) filed under Incredibly Ballsy Yet/Woefully/Ill-Considered/ths/Tagline at your friendly, worldwide dubyadubyadubyadot ObitsBUs dotcom
I figured 8 might be Fun with Dick and Jane, but since that one got remade recently, I dind't think it was all that obscure anymore.
I was thnking of The Magnificent Seven as well, although with that one, the samurai refernce would make sense.
Posted by: Joel at May 17, 2007 09:03 AMAnd I'm amazed that two people got #8.
I remembered the movie but couldn't remember the name. Didn't they do a remake of that recently?
Is No. 3 Patton? No. 4 sounds like Shane.
No. 9's a toughie: there was a movie in which a computer became self-aware and tried to impregnate its creator's wife, and somehow a laser was involved. I thought it was called The Bad Seed but no movies with that title seem to fit. I also can't figure how aliens would come into it. (And from the tarry depths of my brain bubbles up a name: Julie Christie, and lo! IMDB disgorges the movie: Demon Seed. I scare me when I do that. Still no aliens, though.)
10. Train Station / Con / Poker Player / Tough Guy / Caper
Are these made-for-TV movies? This sounds like The Gambler, with Kenny Rogers.
Last week I had this idea (I forget why, now) for an airborne film festival which showed only air disaster movies (yes, I am sick). So I searched through IMDB's keywords for suitable movies, and found that even all the "air" keywords did not turn up airplane movies that I vaguely remembered. (Surely there's got to be another demon-takes-over-airliner flick besides the William Shatner-featuring The Horror at 30,000 Feet. Look at that thing; it's like a watering hole for B-actors.)
So I conclude that they keywords are typed with by a large but finite number of monkeys with keyboards.
Posted by: Angie Schultz at May 17, 2007 09:06 AMWait, THS is knocked up? I smell myrrh.
Posted by: Lisa at May 17, 2007 09:08 AMOk, mine's up too.
Posted by: Dave E. at May 17, 2007 09:17 AMI had to shake my head at some of those keywords also. On one I had to double check that I had the right movie.
Posted by: Dave E. at May 17, 2007 09:24 AMThe lovely, brilliant, and future Hose-ier, THS.
Posted by: John at May 17, 2007 11:47 AMMine are up, not too hard, I think.
Posted by: Tainted Bill at May 17, 2007 03:35 PMI believe they spell that 'MYTH', Lisa.
Too clever by far...John. Ha. Ha. Delightful sense of humor there. I'd laugh but I've a plane to catch.
Don't forget to leave the porch light on, Mr. Summers...
Posted by: Even Covered in Mustard Bingley Couldn't Tempt the Most Desperate of New Orleans Cannibals to Try a Bite at May 17, 2007 07:55 PMThe lovely physics geek? That's a cut and paste error of the first magnitude.
I'm just wondering why no one commented on how "tied up" and "attempted rape" are described as part of your usual Saturday night surfing.
Posted by: Tainted Bill at May 19, 2007 09:54 AM