Final Thoughts on Cinematic Thrillers

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I was in college when I saw the first pond I thought it was like the Erstone in the movie two thousand one. I was like if game automatic game. I was a reporter when space invvaders came out and played it so much, I would get rolls of coins and threw a bump on my back of my wrist. I thought I was gonna die. It was just from pressing the fire button on space invvaders And then because I have a life and I don't get to play games as much as I want to, I would go away and work and try and make a success with my life. and then I would come back and the next thing that came out would be so incredibly advanced. you know, And finally, you got this stuff that was like, you know first person and three D and just really graphic. It was so exciting. And one of the reasons I've kind of turned off my games now is I feel they plateaued and all the games are basically the same. I'm waiting for the next technology to move to the next level. So these are games that I encountered along the way of my life But I just remember as being one of the most fun parts of my life as the games got better and better. So let's take a look at them. Super Mario Brrosers nineteen eighty five. it is what is the gold standard of all games. One of the greatest games, It is the game of games, the greatest of games. It is an S. if there was something higher than S, I would put it on that I would put it there It's just unbelievable. When I first saw it, I thought to myself a plumber saving a princess while fighting banged mushrooms. Who thinks of that? Obviously, drugs were involved, but it was great. All right, next one. Pac Man, arcade, addictive, liked it. I'll give that an A. I think the clever part of it was catching the pellets, which lets you turn on the ghost and trying to lure the ghost into the corner. I liked it for its simplicity. It was a wonderful game. Let's give it an A. Pong P You know, P was actually pretty good, you know, and I'll give that an A as well. It was obviously very, very, very simple, but you got to remember nineteen seventy two, I'm eighteen years old, is the first one I saw. and thought I thought really we had fallen off the edge of modernity. I thought there was no modernity left to walk on when I saw that. So yeah, give that an name Next one, Tetris. Tetris also a level game. You know, I played Tetris so much when it first came out that I was walking along. I'm sure this has happened to anybody who's played it. You get so addicted to it that the shapes just form in your eizes and you start walking around going, bookshelf, camera, but a book. I'll put them all together and I'll put them making them a shave. I love the simplicity of Pong and Tetris, another egg Doom, wonderful game. These are great gam. It brings back memories. I love Memories like the. sorry. Doom that was just I loved shooting things up.'t I remember that as a first person. Should I give? I'm gonna give that an A still 'cause it wasn't one of the greatest game, but it was such a good game when it first came out. and I'd never seen anything like it. It was just wonderful. Space invvaders I gotta give Space Invaders an S in its time, right? I don't wanna take it out of its time Tod it looks pretty primitive, but I loved pinball and I was a reporter when it came out, a newspaper man. and all the newspaper guys would going and we'd play pinball. We'd discussed the day's stories and we played pinball while we were talking it over. And one day this bar across the street from the pinball restaurant, this bar brought out space invaders and it almost destroyed our lives. guys to quit going into that bar because he had just had a baby and couldn a fourord. The number of quarterers we were feeding into it. It's an S game, sppace invaders. Legend of Zelda. I hate the Legend of Zelda. I don't care what you think of me. I don't care. I hate the leegend of Zelda. It's boring and it's just too big and nothing happens and the fighting is stupid it I'll give it a Z. I give the Z for Zelda. I hate that game. I know everybody else likes it with me, but I'm right. Sonic the hedgehog, not a Sonic fan. Maybe it was just too fast for me. I was never a Sonic fan. He always seemed to me like a third rate You know, Mario, but you know always just seemed like a takeo on that game. Ah, I'll give it a C. I never liked it. sorry. Civilization. That was a good game. Id give that a B, a little not my style, kind of a little too slow and intellectual. I kind of like to press the buttons and kill things. but a good game and really clever. and I can imagine really loving it. I wouldn't you know, people who like Zelda, I hold it against them. You know it's just we can't be friends anymore It'siliz I'm joking. I can still be friends with you. I'll just you know laugh at you inwardly. But civilization, that's a game I can understand really loving, but for me it's a be. All right. Froger. Oh my God, that brings back memories. So Froggger, I loved Froggger because it was one of the first games that you could play for computers, especially MSDOS computers, which I worked on for a long time Before DOS computers got really visual, before they caught up with maxs. And so Froogger you know was cool because up until then you were playing like just word games. So you write you'd type in,k down I walked through the forest or something like that. And then it says, you know, you see a little house and you say, oK, I go to the house. And then suddenly Froger came in and you could see it You know, writers do anything they can not to actually work. So Farger filled that void for me. Obviously a kind of simplistic game, I'll give it a be. Megaan, you know, the only reason I'm going to give Megaan an S. I couldn't play it. You had to be able to press the buttons in a certain way where you could climb a wall and shoot at the same time. But my son Spencer loved that Like nobody's business. so I give it an S for him. I'm giving an ask for Spencer. He loved that game and it was one of the first bosses I think he ever beat. I think the Eagle guy he beat. was just a, he's like the size of a football. and he was sitting on the floor flame and that was the first time he ever beat it and it gave him more self esteem than he probably deserves. He did love it. And I loved watching him play it and watching him tryum film. so I'll give it an S for Spencer. Dragon's lair. That was the three D one. It should have been great, but it wasn't. I'll give it a C. But it was like the first really three D game. You could play it in an arcade And it looked like if I've got the right game, I think I have. and it looked like a cartoon. so that was very shocking. but that wasn't a very good game. Castlevania, the old Castlevania, I didn't like at all. One of the ones in the later versions, that was a really nice one. I did like. But Castlevania, I wasn't that interested that. I was just see. Resident evil. Oh man, resesident evil That was so good. That's a S game. That first one scary, one of the first really scary games. now we're getting into nineteen ninety six and they really look like games look like today. and I remember getting stuck on the first five minutes of it because I couldn't figure out. it had a slight quirk in its controls. I can't quite remember what it was. I got stuck and I'd come back day after day after day and finally I figured out where the control was started to play it just a really scary fun horror movie of a game. All right, next, Duck h. was you know, it was kind of cool. it's time because if you'd never been to a carnival, so let's give it we'll give it a be. It's generous, but Crash Bandy Koot, another S game, one of the great games. I think the only game that kind of came out of that super Mario thing It is an scade. We walked into a used game circ. and those days you traded for them. I guess you don't do that anymore, but those days you would trade in your old disc or a new disk. And I said, if you got anything, we like Super Mario, you got anything like that. And they said, Yeah, try this S scrash bandicot. We love it. It was great. and all of them are great. The first one was great. S secondcond one I think is probably the best But an absolute ass. K keep going. Donkey Kong was fun. It was fun. It was you know, M B plus, it was a fun game now. It's great. The newest one it's on the Switch two or whatever it's called. That one is really was really good. Well that's it. We're done. All right, those were That really took me back. I love those games. I love those games. I love watching the art form You know It was just so exciting. It was like being there when they invented movies or when they invented writing or something like that. It was just every day, something new. I wish it were still like that, now it's kind of plateau, but who knows? there's more good stuff to come. All right, today we're not going to do one of one of the painful things where I have to sit and watch TikTok videos, which are I think they're just taking years off my life. But what we're going to do is we're going to rank a list of thriller movies. Now I didn't pick these and I haven't seen them yet So don't write in and say, how could you have left off that, you know, that whatever movie you feel was left off. That's the wrong question. The wrong question is when are you going to get when am I going to get a real life and do something worthwhile for society? And the answer to that is probably never. So we're rank a list of thriller movies. This is the S tier ranking system, which was created by somebody who had nothing else to do. S means superb or super or spectacular or whatever it means. S AB CD. And after that, I don't know the alphabet after that, so it doesn't matter. All right, let's go. Thriller moovies Psycho by nineteen sixty, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. A great movie. It is a great, great S movie. It's both frightening and has course a spectacular, you know mystery, But even after you know the mystery, even after the fear wears off, it is a deeply sorrowful and meaningful movie. And so that's a very hard thing to pull off and H gotot pulled it off. Gaslight, nineteen forty four, directed by George Kuker. This is based on a play called Angel Street, I think, and it's where we get the term gaslight because the guy is fidling with a guas lice to convince his wife she's mad. The movie is okay. The movie is good. It's got Boyet, Charles Boyet, and Egrid Bergman in it and they're very good and it's very compelling, but it's not a great movie, we'll call it a be. Dress to Kill, nineteen eighty directed by Brian D Pama. I just re watchatched that while I was writing Kingdom of Cane. It's a Hitchcock ri off, which Brian D Pala did a lot and got these great reviews for them. And I just think that they're ripoffs. I think this is one of the sleziest stinkiest movies ever. I think it's a slezazy, bad movie. E scene in it is ripped off. It's supposed to be an homage, but I just think it's garbage So we'll give it a D. I really think it's bad. Kate Fear, nineteen ninety one, this directed by Martin Scorsese. This is a remake of a much better movie with Robert Mitchram But I thought this was good. I thought the changes in it were unnecessary and I don't want to go into it too much, but I'll give it a be minus, I Deliverance, you know it's nineteen seventy two directed by John Borman. Now that's a really interesting movie. It's got some upsetting scenes in it. I haven't seen it since nineteen seventy two. I saw it when it came out. I found it good. I found it a good strong movie, but I don't know if it's dated and it has a great performance by Burt Reynolds in it John Voit also is terrific and I'll give it S Black Swan, Natalie Portman as a ballerina, right? by Darren Aronovsky. I like that. Yeah, I'll give it a be. That was good. Elevator of the Gallows directed by Louis Maal, nineteen fifty eight. That is an A movie. It's dated a little bit. It's obviously foreign, but it it's still pretty good. It's an A film Knight of the Hunter, nineteen fifty five directed by Charles Lawghton, a great actor, also a Robert Mitcham film. Everybody loves that movie and thinks it's a classic. I really, really like it. And I just have to say, I do not think it's a great movie, but I think it is a really compelling movie and it's got some iconic stuff in it. Robert Mitcham rested with his hands with good and evil on it, wrestling with each other. and Shelley Winters is terrific in it. I'm going to give that an A plus. It doesn't quite make.ing I'm trying to avoid greatade inflation on these. So I'll give it an A plus. I don't think it's quite the S movie people think it is. The vanishing nineteen eighty eight. This is the original doctor George Slzer Director George Sluser, Man, it's a good movie. It's a little bit long, a little bit slow, but it is a good, spooky, scary movie. I was called in to ask if I wanted to write the American version of it and I said, yes, I'll write it if you promise not to change the ending. They said, abbsolutely not. And they didn't hire me and they made it and they totally changed the ending they it was c garbage, but the original is really spooky. That I'm going to give that an A minus. I think that is a really, really good movie. Do you belie One of my favorite films, Dam Boik, directed by Henry Georgees Cruza, nineteen fifty five. This is what inspired Hitchcock to make psycho because he saw a small black and white film and he never Hitchcock never felt he had all the popularity there. he never felt he got the respect. He never got an Oscar until much later in life He neverelt he got the respect. And when Diabollique came out, Clusau was just lauded to the skies. and what was aggravating for Hitchcock because they called him the French Hitchcock and they gave him much more respect as an artist. I loveved Dab Bolique. The first time I saw that film as a kid, I was twelve years old. Literally and I mean literally on the edge of my seat, it was so good. I've seen it maybe three times since, which is not something I do often. that is an S film. That is a great, great movie And also inspired the S film psycho. Bow up directed by Michelangegelo and Tononei, I'm going to give that an S film a little bit reluctantly. And the only reason I'm a little bit reluctant is it does date, but it is so iconic and it captured the time, you know, Britain in the sixties, you know, where London was the hippest place on earth It captured it and its story, which is so slowly drawn out, is so good. And talk about iconic. That's iconic. I'm going to give that an S. Blowout is Brian the Palmer ripping it off and ripping off every other movie. I'll give that a B because it's actually pretty good, but it But it' you, it's just a rip off of blow up. Don't say a word based on my novel. How can I say this? Don't say a word was a big hit. It was the first hit after nine eleven. It was not written by me. It was based on my novel. A lot of times people introduce me and they say I wrote these movies, but I didn't. I wrote the first script of it, which gave me Hollywood career because everybody wanted to hire me because the script was so good and then they threw the script out, partly my fault because I didn't know anything about Hollywood and they wanted to make some minor changes. and I thought, don't change my work, but you know I'm the writer. But Don't see a word is a good film. It's suspenseful, it's entertaining. but read the book. Pad the book because the end of the book, the last thirty pages of the book are spectacular. A lot of dirty words in the book, by the way, A lot of I warn you about that. But the book is really suspenseful and the last thirty pages are terrific and they change the ending. I couldn't believe the ending is fun. But it's the film is It's a good film good solid film. And it was a big hit, and a hit it was number one on video forever. Blue Velvet, directed by David Lynch. I recently rewatched that film and I'm not a big Lynch fan. A lot of people love Lynch. He's always a little too weird for me, but bllue Vvelvet, I saw Blue Velvet after six months of not seeing a movie and being in a theater. I was so wrapped up in it. It's a little bit goofy But I'll give it a B plus because it's got some wonderful stuff in it. It was back in the day when people were shocked to find that there was sexuality you know there could be violence with sexuality. But I'll give it a B. It's a good movie. Verttigo by Alfred Hitchcock, another S film. That may be Hitchcock's greatest film, certainly my favorite of his films. It is a work of art It is so beautiful to look at. It goes for half an hour with no dialogue. I'm making up the time, but it feels like about half an hour. The dialogue is so tense, so terse. The story is, you know, a thriller story, so it's a little bit absurd, but it is meaningful. It is deeply, deeply meaningful and the only thing that What keeps it from being maybe the greatest movie of all time is that Itchcock was just in love with Grace Kelly. I was in love with Grace Kelly. and she got married to the prince and left and he never forgave her. And he always wanted to replace her to show her that he didn't need her, but he did need her, Kim Novak, who is lovely And is kind of perfect in the role she plays. It's still not Grace Kelly, who would have been the exact right person for it. But other than that, S film, one of the greatest films ever made. M by director Fritz Lang, peopleople pick on this because it's tough, but I think it's an S film. I think it's a great film. It's a film about a child molester, you know, but so it's nineteen thirty one So you're not seeing anything, but I think it's a great stirring, well directed film. Basic Instinct by Paul Verhoven. I am not a fan of this film. I think it's pretty trashy. It has the famous scene, you know of the girl crossing her legs, but I'm not a fan of it. I think the dialogue sucks. I think that the plot is stolen from Se of Love with Al Pacino, and I never thought much of it, but it's iconic in some ways in the worst possible way. It's so blunt and I don't know. I just don't like it. I give it a say. And I gott to stop. So I will stop. I'll stop on a C. but you got a couple of S's in there and I'm keeping the grades from getting inflated. And some of those are just great films. thrillers, The movies are made for thrillers and certainly Verttico, Psycho Uh and de of a leak Great, great films. worth seeing if you haven't seen Well, that was great. So you should like and subscribe and if you want more great stuff, subscribe to the Andrew Claven Show wherever you get your podcast