Superman II

3 comments on Hacker News

1. NeutralPaulHouleJan 10, 2025

   A lot of these are still pretty cheap.

   I know people who make a big deal out of collecting physical media. Personally I find the volume of space they take up is oppressive. I spent a lot of last summer trying to gentle a stray cat

   https://mastodon.social/tags/BobB

   in the "cat room" in our other house (same lot) that was under renovation. I took over a TV and the XBOX and set up a wireless link with the last version of

   https://uisp.com/us/wireless/airmax2-4ghz

   I also took over all my DVD and Blu-Ray. I watched plenty of TV and movies off my media server and off Apple TV, Peacock and Tubi but didn't watch a single disc. I kept the best 10% and gave the rest to the reuse center who thought I was crazy to let go if it. (Boy was it hard to decide between the theatrical release and Richard Donner cut of Superman II)

2. Neutrale12eJun 9, 2015

   I'm more interested in what those 20 movies are. I found:

   http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1981

   1 Raiders of the Lost Ark 2 On Golden Pond 3 Superman II 4 Arthur 5 Stripes 6 The Cannonball Run 7 Chariots of Fire 8 For Your Eyes Only 9 The Four Seasons 10 Time Bandits

   Of which I guess 2, 3, 8 isn't original.

   http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2:w014

   1 American Sniper 2 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 3 Guardians of the Galaxy 4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier 5 The LEGO Movie 6 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 7 Transformers: Age of Extinction 8 Maleficent 9 X-Men: Days of Future Past 10 Big Hero 6

   Of which only 10 is original.

3. NeutralNikkiADec 17, 2009

   IMDB reports that 2322 movies were released in 1939 alone, is it really surprising that there were a handful of good movies among them?

   1980 for comparision, IMDB lists 6007 movies (8000+ if you include TV movies), and contains modern (popular) classics such as Stir Crazy, Superman II, Empire Strikes Back, Airplane!, The Blue Lagoon, Ordinary People, Urban Cowboy. The Shining, Caddyshack, Raging Bull, Friday The 13th, The Fog, The Blues Brothers.

   Hmm, looks like 1980 was a much more 'classic' era than the 40s for hollywood, but you wouldn't have heard that from film buffs in the 80s.

   Hollywood has always been a great abuser of the 'sling lots of shit at the wall and see what sticks' approach to 'greatness', they're just slinging a lot more shit these days.

   Even if we take a really contemporary year and do the same study, we see a pattern of greats no matter what year, take 2005 at random:

   Batman Begins, Sin City, V for Vendetta, Revenge of the Sith, King Kong, Brokeback Mountain, Harry Potter/Goblet of Fire, Serenity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr & Mrs Smith, Wedding Crashers, Munich, Saw 2, Hostel, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Madagascar, Pride & Prejudice, Land of the Dead.

   Ah, but the movie buff will point out that they're not established classics like Gone with the Wind, or Wizard of Oz. Not yet, anyway.

   Edit: Btw, for 2005, the number of movies was 28,000+. Is it any wonder that there is a lot of formulaic stuff in there as well?