Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Follow The Leader: Episode 19: Arnold!

Martinex1:  Did you play Follow the Leader as a kid growing up in the Bronze Age?   Well this is our site's version.   The first commenter to visit today can set the tone by leaving behind a topic to jump start our conversation.

Cheers and have a great day!

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Discuss Arnold Schwarzenegger films.

Anonymous said...

Conan: star-making turn
T1: breakout iconic role
Commando: stupid fun
Red Heat: dumb and not as fun
T2: best story and action
True Lies: best "film" altogether in terms of craft
T3: best superhero bathroom fight ever

"Who is your daddy, and what does he do?"

Yoyo

ColinBray said...

I have never seen one...

david_b said...

Whaaat, no love for 'Jingle All the Way'...? It's in my Top 5 of 'Annoying-but-still-must-watch' Xmas flicks each year.

I'm only annoyed that Robert Conrad couldn't have had a better supporting role, I mean he was frickin' Agent James West AND Major Pappy Boyington for heavens sake. Sheeesh.

Total Recall was quite good, I thought.

B Smith said...

Arnold Schwartzenegger? I thought this was going to be a discussion about Arnold Ziffel!

david_b said...

Arnold Ziffel would be soooo cool.

Loved the episode where Lisa certified herself as a Psychologist and her patient Arnold came in to discuss his problems:

Arnold: (grunting and grunting...)

Lisa: (looking shocked but intrigued) "And THEN what did he say..?"

(Arnold continues grunting...)

Pure surreal genius. :)

The Prowler said...

Oh Yoyo, you gotta find a slot for Predator. You just gotta. The movie that started the franchise that intersected head long with Alien!!!

Sure, he was playing a stock Action Hero, but he did it so well. The scene where he covers himself in mud to prevent Predator from tracking his heat signature. And then his eyes just OPEN. Too cool. Gonna have to watch that again.



(Girls, all I really want is girls
And in the morning it's girls
Cause in the evening it's girls

I like the way that they walk
And it's chill to hear them talk
And I can always make them smile
From White Castle to the Nile

Back in the day
There was this girl around the way
She liked by home-piece M.C.A.
He said he would not give her play
I asked him, "Please?" he said, "You may."
Her pants were tight and that's ok
If she would dance I would D.J.
We took a walk down to the bay

I hope she'll say, "Hey me and you should hit the hay!"
I asked her out she said, "No way!"
I should have probably guessed they're gay
So I broke North with no delay
I heard she moved real far away
That was two years ago this May
I seen her just the other day
Jockin' Mike D. to my dismay

Girls - to do the dishes
Girls - to clean up my room
Girls - to do the laundry
Girls - and in the bathroom
Girls, that's all I really want is girls
Two at a time I want girls
With new wave hairdos I want girls
I ought to whip out my girls, girls, girls, girls, girls!)

Steve Does Comics said...

I love:

"Terminator II"
"Total Recall"
"Predator"


I like:

"Terminator"
"Terminator III"
"Last Action Hero"
"Twins"
"Kindergarten Cop"


I hate:

"Batman and Robin"

All the rest, I view as being somewhere between bad and mediocre.

His, "guest appearance," in, "Terminator IV," was the only highlight of that movie and is genuinely a jaw-dropping moment.

Overall, I would say he's not exactly what you could call a gifted actor but knows what he's good at and has shrewdly catered his film career towards it.

Chim said...

Besides the Terminator movies I am still fond of Total Recall.

And I have to respect him for actually trying serious politics as a governor of California, even though I can not judge how good he actually was at it (I live in Germany). But I had the impression, he really tried hard. If I remember correctly, he signed an ambitious climate change law in 2006.

(Hope I was allowed to include this one and it does not collide with non-politics rules on this blog...)

Edo Bosnar said...

Used to like them much more than I do now, but I often like to watch them if they happen to come on TV, esp. Total Recall, True Lies and the often inexplicably overlooked Running Man - which I think is one of the best.
Anyway, for fans of Arnie movies, there's a podcast just for you, which I highly recommend: Podcasta la Vista, Baby!

Mike Wilson said...

I used to love Schwarzenegger in the 80s and 90s ... later on, not so much.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I think Arnold's tour de force was as a governor of California. It took him about 2 weeks to learn he can't refer to those in opposition as "girlie men." Classic!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I've never watched an Arnie film intentionally. I've stumbled over them on TV (mostly Terminator) and watched. Problem is the commercials really kill the momentum for them so I stop watching after an hour.

Also Arnie's still HUGE in the body building community and the videos / movies where he competes for Mr. World (?) and wins are highly regarded and watched. And that was how it all started... working out a lot, winning those big contests.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comments everybody.

Colin B - I'm amazed you've never seen an Arnie movie !

Chim Brouer - President Hollande of France has just awarded Arnie the Legion D' Honneur for his environmental work.

Edo - where have you been ????

Charlie - that's one of the best things about the BBC - no commercials on TV or radio. Instead we have to pay an annual licence fee which currently costs £147. By coincidence I bought my 2017/18 licence just today - worth every penny !

pfgavigan said...

Hiya,

I hope this comment makes as much sense when read as it sounded in my head.

I have seen movies that Arnold was in but I have never seen a film because he was in it.

When a movie is well made he rises to the material, unfortunately I believe the reverse is also true.

By the by, several people who knew him when he was taking classes at UW Madison have told me that he was about 5' 9", possibly 5' 10". Maybe the best special effects in his movies have been the ones that made him appear so large in relationship to everything around him.

Seeya,

pfgavigan

Graham said...

Hate to say it, but the best performance I saw Arnold do was in the movie Pumping Iron, playing himself. He always seemed stiff and uncomfortable in his other movies, but as himself as a body builder, he was playing chess and everybody else was playing checkers. It was an amazing performance. I always wanted to see that swagger and style in his other movies....he certainly could have done it.

Anonymous said...

"Get to da choppa!!! Naowww!!!

M.P.

Redartz said...

david_b- ok, I'll admit it. "Jingle All the Way" is actually my favorite Ahnuld movie. And one of my favorite holiday movies...

And "Kindergarten Cop" was enjoyable fluff. Saw the first two "Terminator" films...found them ok; but not anything I'd watch twice...

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Graham, that's exactly the movie I was thinking of. Arnie was in "pumping iron "and he wins the Mr. Olympia contest. And it's a great film no doubt about it. And you are spot on, in that Arnold really seems to be his best playing himself so to speak.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Colin, no we do not pay a television tax per se and the commercials do suck; we must pay for cable and satellite. However I just received my property tax bill to use the public library and that was $327.14 for 2017. Ouch!

Anonymous said...

Gotta luv the Governator baby!

Personally, I like his Terminator series and the first Predator movie. Been a fan of his ever since his bodybuilding days. For someone with a distinctive accent (heck even native Austrians don't sound like that!) he's sure made it far in his Hollywood career. It's a testament to his drive and ambition that a guy like him with a funny name could make it big in the world of sports, entertainment and politics!


- Mike 'hasta la vista baby' from Trinidad & Tobago.

Martinex1 said...

Are the Conan movies any good? I haven't seen them in about 35 years and have no idea if they held up (or were ever good).

I remember liking The Running Man but have a feeling it is pretty dated.

Anonymous said...

I thought the first Conan movie was great. I was already a big Robert E. Howard fan at the time, when I was maybe fourteen or fifteen, and my brother and I went to see it. I started lifting weights after that. I even started punching guys out. They had it coming!!
See, art can inspire and lead people to live better lives.
The less said about the sequel, the better.

M.P.

ColinBray said...

Charlie - fascinating to read your property tax/library bill. If the UK library service I work for applied the same amount our overall budget would double.

As it is, making ends meet is a daily struggle but somehow we manage it without closing libraries.

ColinBray said...

Let me update this last comment. In fact, if we applied the same tax to libraries our library budget would be about £50,000,000 and not the £6,000,000 we currently have. Wowzer. And congrats on having what must be a great library service :)

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Well, here's what we have for the village of Downers Grove with a total population of 50,000 almost exactly.

The "revenue" for the library was $5.2 MM with 93% from property tax. The rest was from fines paid by Charlie for overdue books! Revenues exceeded expenses so no debt /deficit that year.

They have books, magazines, audio CDs/DVDs of books, DVD movies.

Two stories of a relatively new building.

Numerous rooms for group study / discussion.

A few large rooms for like 100 people, for like small concerts, presentations on traveling the UK, cooking with pomegranates...

A good 2 dozen PCs with internet access and various programs for public use.

A lit parking lot for like 50 cars.

And, it's open 7 days a week from like 9 to 9 PM except Sat and Sun where it closes at 5.

Quite an enterprise to be sure!

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