Movie Night!
It's Oscar week, so I figure it's a good time to talk about movies. I saw the remake of "True Grit" last weekend (making a total of 6 of the Best Picture nominees that I saw this year), and thought is was really good -- I decided it was my third favorite Western of all time (behind "Unforgiven" and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"). This got me thinking -- what are my favorite movies in the various categories? Here's what I've come up with so far (in no particular order):
Best Drama: The Godfather
Best Western: Unforgiven
Best Low-brow Comedy: Caddyshack
Best Mid-brow Comedy: Office Space
Best High-brow Comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Best Fantasy: The Princess Bride
Best Sports Movie: Field of Dreams
Best Action Movie: The Dark Knight
Best Animated Movie: The Lion King
Best Romance: Forrest Gump
Which brings us to the subject of "Best Boat Flick". This means different things to everyone, and I'd be surprised if any two boats had the same favorite movie at the same time. What makes a movie a good Boat Flick doesn't make it a movie you'd necessarily watch when you're on the beach. Back on Topeka during my JO tour, the favorite seemed to be "The Cutting Edge". As Eng, I never really had time to watch many underway movies, unfortunately.
So what changes or additions would you make to the list above? And what is your favorite "boat flick"?
90 Comments:
WestPac '86 on the Chuckie V we wore out our copies of 'Better Off Dead' and 'Alien 2'. Classics, the both of 'em.
2/23/2011 4:18 PM
Down Periscope - I was laughing when no one else in the theater knew what was going on. Plus it captured the soon to be co-ed crew antics.
2/23/2011 4:35 PM
Das Boot
2/23/2011 4:39 PM
Major League was by far the most burnt flick on patrol.
2/23/2011 4:51 PM
Ski School. we were 3 days from deployment and they sent us our new movies, but Ski school was listed to be returned. I was movie PO on my fist boat and I "misplaced" the movie. The straight laced JO who was in charge wanted to take me to mast so I told the COB I had the movie and it would be returned when we got underway. Many nights of T&A were enjoyed by all and when the the CO found out he called me into his stateroom and gave me an attaboy! (off the record of course)
2/23/2011 5:32 PM
Some honorable mentions,
Best War Movie;
Master and Commander
Best trilogy;
1. The Bourne series.
2. Lord of the Rings.
2/23/2011 5:47 PM
The Vikings, Kirk Douglas, 1958. Shown with sound off in SS-244 - the crew knew all the lines.
Barbarella, Jane Fonda, 1968. Sprocket holes worn out in title sequence to see if that really was a tit shot: http://www.wikio.com/video/barbarella-trailer-3139264
2/23/2011 5:53 PM
Hey, Iwo...I was on that WestPac! Remember Better Off Dead quite well. Sculpin...For some reason the flick of choice was Roadhouse. Michigan was a toss-up between Kentucky Fried Movie and Sea of Love (One of my QMs coined the phrase "Damn, if Pacino looked at me like that, I'd go down to MCLL and kick my OWN ass!") KAM was Down Periscope. MSP, in the advent of personal DVD players, didn't seem to have a clear favorite.
2/23/2011 6:31 PM
Warrior Emperess with Tina Louise. reel one and three were about some guys fighting, But, reel two took place in the temple of Aphrodite and it had a thousand foot long sprocket hole.
2/23/2011 6:40 PM
87 and 88 Pittsburgh, we burned the hell out of Highlander for the midnight movie - we tortured the nucs so bad it almost wasn't fun anymore (almost).
2/23/2011 6:54 PM
Pintado, '92-'96, toss up between Ski school, and Highlander. Either one or the other got burned at least 2-3 times a week.
2/23/2011 7:55 PM
While I wasn't onboard, I know the LA had a thing about "Blue Crush" in the 2002-2004 timeframe
2/23/2011 8:23 PM
Very good flicks have been missed by most due only to poor promotion or local reception. "Crime Spree", for instance, makes nearly everyone laugh out loud, but there is more than comedy in some of the others.
Favorite American boat flick is still "The Hunt for Red October".
2/23/2011 8:42 PM
USS Norfolk '89-90: Really couldn't tell you why, but Princess Bride and Raising Arizona...had a CommO who could do a great "Nathan needs some Huggies".
2/23/2011 8:47 PM
Too many old farts posting old movies.
Team America - World Police.
2/23/2011 8:53 PM
Lair of the White Worm
2/23/2011 8:53 PM
Blue Crush - aka Jessica Alba in a bikini for two hours - was a favorite in our wardroom. I am pretty sure we watched it 3 Saturdays in a row. Idiocracy was also pretty popular.
The rules were simple:
1 Tits & Ass
2 Swordfights
3 No dude ass
"The cutting edge"? I didn't realize there were women on your deployments.
2/23/2011 9:09 PM
Boat flicks seemed to change with the deployment. We came up with key factors that seemed to pervade most popular boat flicks. They were:
T&A - No big surprise here
O - Ordnance
K - Kung Fu (any martial arts, really)
S - Swordfighting
Most popular boat flicks had at least three of these factors. Interestingly, few movies seemed to have all of them. "Exit Wounds" comes to mind as one that was a popular boat flick for about a month of deployment and actually had all four. "Roadhouse" did pretty well on this scale although it's "S" ranking was questionable.
We later added the negative category of DA (Dude Ass). That knocked "Roadhouse" down a peg in the rating scale.
As far as movies involving submarines, Das Boot is the best IMHO.
2/23/2011 9:16 PM
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2/23/2011 9:21 PM
Amazingly enough I had not seen Anon @ 9:09's post when I posted mine. Same boat? Blue Crush post-dates my last sea tour.
"The Cutting Edge" is definitely suspect. Reminds me of a memorable movie night when somebody told the A-gangers that an obvious chick flick ("Sense and Sensibility" I think) had a great girl-on-girl scene at the very end. Two hours later the credits rolled and there were some pissed off A-gangers.
2/23/2011 9:29 PM
Super Troopers - who wants a mustache ride!
2/23/2011 9:35 PM
New category: Best Boat Flick - Trident (2006-present):
No contest....Brokeback Mountain
---------------
How can any submarine compare to "XO Movie Night" on the ENTERPRISE?
2/23/2011 9:39 PM
"Team America-World Police"
Crew knew it by heart-bust up training with a well timed "FU Hans Blix"
Best puppet sex ever.
2/23/2011 9:49 PM
Most of yours were right on target BH.
Serenity is great but the ending left me depressed for a week.
Wouldn’t watch South Park if you duct taped me in front of the screen.
Add Clockwork Orange and Wizards.
And nobody else ran the heck out of Body Heat?
2/23/2011 10:00 PM
I'll second anon 8:53's vote for "Lair of the White Worm". Best u/w movie ever!
hagar
2/23/2011 10:05 PM
Not a single mention of "Tank Girl" on here? And I thought I was surrounded by some salty creatures here....
2/23/2011 10:41 PM
I seem to remember a rather blue edition of Caligula being burned late 90's on 721.
2/23/2011 10:47 PM
"Blue Crush - aka Jessica Alba in a bikini for two hours - was a favorite in our wardroom. I am pretty sure we watched it 3 Saturdays in a row. Idiocracy was also pretty popular."
@ Anon @ 9:09
Jessica Alba wasn't in Blue Crush. Michelle Rodriguez and Kate Bosworth were though.
You obviously weren't/aren't very good at the movie game.
2/24/2011 12:00 AM
I agree with 90% of your movie list. :ion King not so much. Animation would have to go to Pixar films...any. As far as the movie that played the most in the early 80s on the USS Tunny SSN 682 was Mel Brooke's "Blazing Saddles". We knew every line.
2/24/2011 12:05 AM
"How can any submarine compare to "XO Movie Night" on the ENTERPRISE?"
The stuff seen in XO Movie Night on the 'prize (I've seen most of the unedited versions, not the mutilated clip the press had) was pretty PG compared to the crap that ACTUALLY HAPPENED underway. It was such a common occurrence that nobody really saw a need to video tape funny crap going down.
But the big reason is... We're not target riders. Thats why we not only compare, but trump anything that goes on on the bird farm.
-ETC/SS(RET)
2/24/2011 12:05 AM
Bloodsport - with that awesome "french" guy, Jean Claude Goddahm!
2/24/2011 4:46 AM
"There can be only one."
Highlander
2/24/2011 5:18 AM
Are you talking DVDs or honest to god three reel 16 mm film?
Extra points if you went to MPO school.
ex-EM1(SS)
2/24/2011 5:23 AM
"My Tutor" - deployment 1984. Probably burned as the midwatch movie 2-3 times per week.
Halfway through deployment, had a throttleman ask what the movie was. Someone said "probably My Tutor". TH said, "Oh...what's it about?" EO, RO and I looked at him like he had just landed from Mars.
2/24/2011 5:30 AM
Add to war movie: The Big Red One
Funny movie: Airplane (wore out the sprockets) (all other movies on board were disney flicks)
Coming into port movie: The Highlander
Biggest fake out: Room with a view. Promised a nude scene. Didn't know it was going to be two guys running around a pond. He was no longer allowed to pick movies.
2/24/2011 5:30 AM
Gas Pump Girls
Warriors
2/24/2011 6:35 AM
The USS Bergall burned up the tape on Terminator back in 1984. The "I'll be back" line just seemed to fit most evolutions; PD, chow, PMS, bunky, spill and kill drills, field days, training, etc...
Drake
2/24/2011 6:54 AM
Are we all from the 80's on this blog?
Our "boat flicks", to the best of my memory:
Highlander....
Better off Dead....
Youngblood....
2/24/2011 7:50 AM
Westpac '89
Bloodsport and Die Hard.
2/24/2011 7:53 AM
Early 1980s, a movie called "Van Nuys Boulevard" got virtually continuous play on a WestPac on USS Skate. For days on end it was shown in the crew's mess, then in the wardroom, and then in crews's mess again for midrats. Simply non-stop T&A.
Later, I saw that movie was to be shown on a regular, public TV channel. The G-rated version, even with extensive commercial interruptions, was less than a hour long.
2/24/2011 9:10 AM
Oh yeah, and Tuff Turf.
2/24/2011 10:00 AM
Cool Hand Luke The Car Wash
2/24/2011 10:02 AM
Joel,
I'm surprised that in this band of merrymen that you didn't have some real submarine categories.
I would think that at the top of this list would be "Best T&A"
Given time, I'm sure some other categories like this will "surface" as well.
RP
709/685/649
2/24/2011 10:05 AM
Beerfest!!!
2/24/2011 12:01 PM
As a combination underway ELT and the SNOB, I picked the movie a lot for about 4 months. Ski School was always a favorite. I still watch that thing when it is on Starz.
Lambada, the forbidden dance.
2/24/2011 2:02 PM
On 713 our favorite submarine movie was Down Periscope, it was always a good call. Aside from that we had no one favorite movie. But like many others any movie that had T&A and/or violence was worthwhile. Overall favorites were Sin City, X Men The Last Stand, and episodes of Red vs Blue. One crewman managed to convince folks to watch Brokeback Mountain, shortly during it was banned by the captain. No one complained.
Oh and there were a few nights in a row where I was the only one that really wanted to watch a movie so it was consecutive nights of Godzilla movies!
2/24/2011 2:04 PM
Had an ENG that liked to put Major League on in the background whether or not anyone was watching it or not.
Had an RO who used Ferris Bueller's Day Off as the basis for his movie trivia game....opening question was what was the license plate # for the convertible that Ferris drove?
Back in the day we used to get movies , some of which were ahead of the release schedule for the general public. Does that still happen?
2/24/2011 2:33 PM
@2/24/2011 12:00 AM Anon
Damn you're right on both counts - I sucked at the movie game and the movie I was thinking about was "Into the Blue"
My best move in the movie game was always Tom Cruise -> Meg Ryan "Top Gun"
@ex-768 ENG
Not sure what other boats you were on, I was on 741 Gold.
2/24/2011 3:09 PM
Best Western: 3:10 To Yuma
Best Comedy: Peewee's Big Adventure
Best SciFi: Total Recall
Best War Movie: Team America - World Police
Best Action Movie: The Dark Knight
Best Fantasy: Conan The Barbarian
Best Trilogy: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
2/24/2011 3:20 PM
Clerks and Mallrats on my first boat.
Speaking of Blue Crush, I rode an airplane out of Honolulu with that movie. There was a guy with the film in canisters taking to the mainland. Took a while until the movie came out.
2/24/2011 3:43 PM
First boat--Return of the Living Dead seemed to make more than a few appearances..."But I still I still love you, CAUSE I CAN SMELL YOUR BRAINS!!!"
Other boat--Clueless and Army of Darkness.
As far as "best" categories (not necessarily boat flicks):
Western: Once Upon A Time in the West
Sci-Fi: Star Trek II-Wrath of Khan, Aliens
Comedy: Blazing Saddles, Airplane, Dr. Strangelove
Fantasy: Princess Bride
War: Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan
Submarine: Das Boot, Run Silent, Run Deep
Sports: Bull Durham, North Dallas Forty
Action: Braveheart, Die Hard
Animated: Heavy Metal
2/24/2011 5:03 PM
One heckle line seemed to come up often, regardless of the movie, "Hit 'er in the ----er."
2/24/2011 5:19 PM
Animal House played I don't know how many times - it was our ORSE movie.
2/24/2011 5:46 PM
On ustacity we were not allowed to watch Blazing Saddles due to the insensitive language that could offend African-American shipmates. So we voted for Mississippi Burning and American History X for a week straight. Result= no movies for one week and Mando GMT. I thought the COB was going to stroke out. Ah the good ol’ pendulum of stupidity.
2/24/2011 6:02 PM
SAN JUAN 88
Princess Bride
HENRY M JACKSON 93-97
So I Married an Axe Murderer
MICHIGAN 98-99
Clerks
Mall Rats
Empire Records
OK CITY 00
Matrix
Others: Old School
Base ketball
Super Troopers
Office Space
2/24/2011 7:15 PM
USS Drum late 80s - Major League got a lot of play time.
2/24/2011 8:09 PM
During the 1986-89 period, our little band of rider-scum tried to get a John Wayne movie played on the way to our op area the night before we got there on each boat.
I still have a soft spot for The Searchers, McClintock, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Nothing like the Duke to prepare you for what might come next.
2/24/2011 11:31 PM
USS WYOMING (1999-2001)
Austin Powers (1 or 2)
Wild Things
Cruel Intentions
Varsity Blues
2/24/2011 11:48 PM
Back on the 628 in the 83-84 timeframe, it was "Breastmaster"...er um... "Beastmaster". Something about Tanya Roberts...
2/25/2011 5:20 AM
Usually any B movie was a goodie in the late 70's onboard 634 blue. Invaision of the B girls comes to mind. But for some reason on one Patrol we were inthralled with "Phanton of the Paradise". A Paul Williams spoof of "Phanton of the opera".I bought the DVD in 96 after a boat reunion because we had talked it up so much. Gee what were we thinking?
2/25/2011 5:42 AM
We had a tradition on the KY to watch Army of Darkness each half way night. It was great. Down Periscope was by far the funniest, of course we would all relate the characters to people who were on the boat. And we even had an "XO Pasco". Good times for sure.
2/25/2011 8:51 AM
Sea Devil SSN-664 it was Roadhouse in 1990. Sabota was a big fan of Millennium.
2/25/2011 10:32 AM
early 80's on OHIO (Blue)
- Better Off Dead (where's my 2 dollars??)
- Hot Dog - the Movie (T in the first reel and Shannon Tweed)
Those are the ones I remember.
JT
2/25/2011 12:01 PM
Anmother point system, 1 each:
Shooting
Nudity
Locomotive
Native American
Explosion
Car Chase
Only movie that maxed out BEFORE the opening credits. . .
CAT PEOPLE (1982 version)
Ah, yes, Gas Pump Girls!
2/25/2011 12:44 PM
OT News: Wasn't the New York Times just telling us the other day that in the view from their oh-so-military expert ivory tower that the ARMY was needing resources, and the NAVY was going to have to cut such things as the Virginia Class submarines..."a cold-war relic?"
Guess they forgot to tell that boy (with a small 'b') that works for them down in DC, a Mr. Gates, what the real war geniuses were thinking in NYC. Maybe he doesn't read the NYT?
“As the prospects for another head-on clash of large mechanized land armies seem less likely, the Army will be increasingly challenged to justify the number, size, and cost of its heavy formations,” Mr. Gates warned.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/26gates.html?hp
2/25/2011 3:40 PM
^^^^
Why do I always have to "call away" the dumb one's? This guy makes Daniel look like William F. Buckley.
2/25/2011 4:08 PM
Why, yes...yes they did:
"But for a decade, the Army and the Marines have been pushed to their limits while the Navy and the Air Force have looked for ways to stay useful and justify their budget shares."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20sun1.html?scp=1&sq=Virginia%20class&st=cse
LOL!
2/25/2011 4:09 PM
Suck on it, so to speak, 4MC. Your liberal cat box liner seems to be losing some of it's own self-proclaimed Art of War genius factor.
Too much focus on gay sensitivity training for combat troops, perhaps?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/24/combat-troops-to-get-gay-sensitivity-training/
2/25/2011 4:14 PM
I am an old Army guy, love seeing what the Navy likes.
Apocolypse Now and Patton were always good for us dogfaces.
My personal favorites not mentioned here:
comedy war, Kelly's Heroes, Mash
war, Gettysburg
old Navy war, The Bedford Incident
the hottest movie (circa 1982)has got to be, Body Heat with Kathleen Turner.
2/25/2011 4:28 PM
Liberal ideology hell, I'll stick a boot up a bleeding hearts ass faster than you iron your poopie suit, zipper head.
This is an underway flick post and yet Francis pipes in with some left field NY Times gibberish. WTF?
I'm sure most everyone else smelled his blood in the water....I just happened to bite him first...now go scrub the shitters, take a shower, and go see Doc.
2/25/2011 7:31 PM
4MC "if ya call me francis.......I'll kill ya. and I don't play any of that homo stuff. any you guys put your hands on me......I'll kill ya."
2/25/2011 7:50 PM
Summer Lovers with Daryl Hannah gave Body Heat a run for the money. As one reviewer said, "This is a film that struggles with limited (but attractive) talent, flamboyantly uneven direction and bad editing... But at the same time, Summer Lovers doesn't blink when looking into freedom of the body, and freedom in relationships."
In other words, pretty much a perfect boat flick.
2/25/2011 8:01 PM
I got 4mc on this one, burning "Summer Lovers" would cause a riot. Just the title makes men gay. Please tell us you are not a Submariner.
And to the FTG impostor (4-Stop)at 5:32pm 2/23/2011, which was my random title several times recently, tell us what leads to a 4-stop? Way to easy, but if this poster is the fraud I think he is we'll never hear from him again. FT god, 4 of 6 speaking.....
2/26/2011 12:43 AM
Green Screen -
Have you ever seen Summer Lovers? If not, STFU. You're clearly not mature enough to recognize art.
2/26/2011 7:54 AM
Green screen, first off its “gray” not “green” damn NUB’s! And the fastest way to get a 4-stop is to press and hold the red lamp test on the upper right of the number 0 (that’s the one on the left NUB) maintenance panel. You could also set CM ADX 103 to a bogus ADX. Quick go no-go question NUB, what is the power supply to the MK-138 bearing rate computer? NUB of the TUB is now in session.
The Original 4-Stop has spoken!
2/26/2011 9:42 AM
Late 70's on the Sturgeon the all time favorite was "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" (or anything else with Claudia Jennings in it).
2/26/2011 11:48 AM
Ah, the power hungry MK-138 bearing rate computer, runs on nothing but fingers....nice attempt though.
Also, as a MK-117 and CCS Mk 2 FT, all our screens were green.
Anyway, back on topic...
I hear Amadeus was popular in the Wardroom.
2/26/2011 11:58 AM
Green Screen, at least you have a sense of humor! The green vs. grey was a huge debate on in our DCSCC-117 class. The original color scale was based on grey scale design. However the phosphorus coating the inside of the CRT gave the infamous “Green glow” hence the term green screen. Either way the O-gangers were told that “they lie to you and don’t believe anything on them” XO D-bag comment when giving new JO’s the control room tour. My response: “shit in = shit out”
Caddy shack was an all-time favorite.
2/26/2011 12:40 PM
Back on the Drum during the 78-81 timeframe there was a movie (16mm) called "Lifeforce". The alien chick walking around naked all of the time had the most perfect set of twins. I still watch that when I see it playing on cable.
A sidenote: We used to go to 32nd street to get our movies for Westpac, about 70 in all. That was always a fun job - Ha Ha. But we also got to pick them.
RM2(SS)
2/26/2011 1:28 PM
'78 Animal House. must have played every night. Other boats were dying for it. Also, any movie with event a hint of T&A
2/26/2011 11:05 PM
Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and just about every other B movie available.
2/28/2011 1:16 AM
Okay, way back it had to be Roadhouse (We had the smae table clothes as the dress she wore.. Red Checkered) and Ski School. If you had 15 minutes before shutting down the mess decks, pop in Ski school and FF to all the nude scenes..
They lived with Roddie Piper too.
2/28/2011 8:19 AM
Stickit!
3/01/2011 4:03 PM
We watched "The Abyss" while we had SEALs on board in the wardroom. They really didn't care for it, best part of the movie was the flooding scene.
3/02/2011 6:48 AM
Eurotrip ... 3 patrols in a row.
3/03/2011 1:10 PM
Ustacity a few years ago. A newly qualified cone got to pick his first movie. Just to antagonize his sea dad he picked "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" Instant classic. We had guys talking in badly dubbed falsettos for months telling the Chosen One he'll never make it...
3/03/2011 7:39 PM
On the Woodie Woo, in the early 80's, it was Death Stalker (renamed tit stalker). You just can't beat Barbie Benton's boobs (along with many others in that flick. We almost rewound the threads off of that reel, but I don't remember if we needed the skinny scope lens for that movie, or not. (16mm reel to reel days)
3/08/2011 10:20 AM
Eary 90's on the Bremerton, the favorite in port duty section movie was Tremors. We had a TM who loved guns.
3/13/2011 5:02 PM
682 in the Early 80's. We watched the shit out of Too Hot to Handle. No plot, bad acting but lots of T&A and some fair fight scenes from Samantha Fox.
Also caught Jacqueline Bisset before the Deep in Secrets. Watched reel 3 over and over.
3/20/2011 8:53 PM
I read really much helpful information here!
10/05/2011 1:32 PM
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