Screwtape Needs To See…¶

I have something of a reputation for being immune or indifferent to popular culture; like many things about me it’s not so much rebellion as having never gotten around to it. One thing I did once get around to was writing an IRC bot with the ability to store and retrieve facts — fairly soon after introducing it to my friends they started stashing all kinds of reminders into it, “reminding” me to see various things.

The IRC bot broke one day, and I never got around to fixing it, but a friend dug all the “Screwtape needs to see” messages out of their archives recently, and I thought I’d put them up here for posterity.

Things yet unseen¶

In very approximate chronological order of recommendation.

• Screwtape needs to see American Beauty
  • Another vote from penryu
  • Another vote from bobthecheese
• Screwtape needs to see more Jackie Chan
  • Another vote from bobthecheese
• Screwtape needs to see Babylon5
  • Two recommendations for this
• Screwtape needs to see Pulp Fiction
• Screwtape needs to see The Abyss
• Screwtape needs to see The Hudsucker Proxy
  • Another vote from penryu
• Screwtape needs to see Mad Max {I,II,III,IV}
  • Also, a “has Screwtape seen Mad Max”?
• Screwtape needs to see “One Crazy Summer”
• Screwtape needs to see Army of Darkness
  • Another vote from penryu
• Screwtape needs to see The Seven Samurai
• Screwtape needs to see Blackadder - all of them
  • Two recommendations for this, an extra recommendation for seasons 2 and 4
  • Another vote from bobthecheese
• Screwtape needs to see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
• Screwtape needs to read Bloom County. He REALLY NEEDS TO.
• Screwtape needs to see Planet of the Apes, and all relevant sequels
• Screwtape needs to see Good Omens (after it’s made)
• Screwtape needs to see The Wall
  • Another vote from bobthecheese
• Screwtape needs to see Pulp Fiction
• Screwtape needs to see Get Shorty
• Screwtape needs to see Reservoir Dogs
• Screwtape needs to see Blues Brothers
• Screwtape needs to see The Muppet Movie, and all subsequent sequels
• Screwtape needs to see Doctor Zhivago
• tell screwtape to watch Aliens
• remind Screwtape that he needs to watch otnemem
  • Two more recommendations under the name “Memento”
• remind Screwtape to watch a Sean Penn movie
• screwtape needs to see fargo
• remind Screwtape to watch Firefly
  • Two recommendations for this
• remind Screwtape to see Baz’ Romeo+Juliet
• Remind Screwtape to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie and TV series)
  • Another vote from penryu
• remind Screwtape he needs to see BladeRunner again
  • Not a duplicate as I’ve only watched it once, not again. :)
• tell Screwtape to go watch Rocky Horror Picture Show
• tell Screwtape to see Rocky and Rocky Balboa
• remind Screwtape to see From Dusk till Dawn
• tell Screwtape he needs to see Sin City
  • Two recommendations for this
• remind Screwtape to watch Beetlejuice
• tell Screwtape that he needs to watch Grosse Pointe Blank. NEEDS
• Screwtape needs to watch Bound.
• Screwtape needs to see Galaxy Quest.

Things already seen¶

Most of these I’ve seen without reference to the above list. I’ll include a comment on each one so you can get an idea of what movies I like.

• Screwtape needs to see Fight Club
  • Not too violent, and deliciously mind-messing-with.
• Screwtape needs to read Snow Crash
  • The start of my lengthy Neal Stephenson fandom.
• Screwtape needs to see Being John Malkovich
  • Poignant, hilarious, and deliciously brain-twisting.
• Screwtape needs to see Blade Runner
  • I appreciated all the effort put into evoking an atmosphere; I kind of wish I’d seen the version with explanatory hard-boiled voice-over.
• Screwtape needs to see Spaceballs
  • If it was ever funny, it hasn’t aged well.
• Screwtape needs to see the composer commentary on The Matrix DVD. it’s very good.
  • The composer was interesting, I found the backing music incredibly irritating.
• Screwtape needs to see 12 monkeys
  • A bit depressing, but well-plotted.
• Screwtape needs to see Life of Brian
  • As usual with the Pythons, a few really great scenes sandwiched between less-great scenes, and scenes that might have been funnier if I hadn’t been hearing them quoted verbatim by fans for twenty years.
• Screwtape needs to watch This Is Spinal Tap
  • Kept me amused, but I’m more pleased the fact I can say I’ve seen it than I was by watching it.
• Screwtape needs to see Pirates of the Carribean.
  • Great fun, but deep down I wished I were watching The Secret Of Monkey Island: The Movie instead.
• Screwtape needs to see Bambi vs Godzilla
  • I laughed. Twice.
• tell Screwtape to see Inception.
  • A beautifully-executed take on a very old idea, worth going out of your way to see.
• Screwtape needs to see both Bill and Ted movies
  • Enjoyable but mindless, probably not worth going out of your way to see.
• Screwtape = needs to watch Monkey!
  • I was very impressed at how many plotlines they had that I’d never seen anywhere else.
• Screwtape: you should see Anchorman.
  • This was terrible. Even the (very) few jokes that started out funny kept going until they stopped being funny and started being hair-tearingly frustrating.

Suggestions?¶

Ripostes? Re-recommendations? You know who to call.