Fargo and other movies
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Posted by Amorette Allison (+12509) 14 years ago
The mention of Marge Gunderson of "Fargo" got me laughing. I LOVE "Fargo!" It is one of my very favorite movies but I would never recommend it to anyone because I know most people are horrified by it. There are several movies I like, such as "Dogma" or "Pulp Fiction" which make most people I know run screaming in the opposite direction.

Does anyone here have a movie they love but the don't dare recommend?
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
I'm with you on Fargo and Dogma. Both are hysterical but may not be appreciated by others. Ditto Repo Man and Clerks. I think only those who are a little "off" really get them.

Oh, and Rocky Horror Picture Show and Bowfinger


GVC's wife
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
Drop Dead Gorgeous - Kirsti Alley, Ellen Barkin, and Allison Janney (as you've never seen them) along with Kristen Dunst, Denise Richards and Britany Murphy in a beauty pageant murder mystery that takes place in your typical Minnesota small town, complete with a trailer park, mortuary, tractors, hunting trips, parades and perverts.

OOOh - almost forgot The Big Lebowski and Being John Malkovich.

[This message has been edited by Steve Craddock (edited 10/4/2008).]
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Love, love, love Being John Malkovich.

Barton Fink - you need a strong stomach for this one.

Harold and Maude

Memento

GVC's wife
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Posted by Hal Neumann (+10306) 14 years ago
I think "Fargo," "Dogma, and "Pulp Fiction" are good movies.

I like "The Way of the Gun" and "Kukushka," but most people don't seem to care for them. Neither of them is likely to make any top 10 lists of all time great films - but then most movies don't make those lists ; -)

Warning . . . Plot Spoilers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...of_the_Gun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo
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Posted by Stone (+1588) 14 years ago
Anything Kevin Smith does is pure genius. Clerks, Dogma

Another odd movie I liked was Little Miss Sunshine.
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Posted by ABC (+385) 14 years ago
Naked Lunch

Videodrome

A Clockwork Orange





ABC
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Posted by Kacey (+3151) 14 years ago
Fargo, Dogma, and Drop Dead Gorgeous are all a bit different but truly enjoyable movies. They each appeal to different parts of my personality depending on what is happening in my life that day!

Another one I would list is Arlington Road.
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Posted by David Schott (+18391) 14 years ago
Has anyone seen "Burn After Reading" yet? It's a new Coen Brothers movie with Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons...

It is a bit like "Fargo", a dark comedy with people behaving badly and suffering the consequences.

I thought Frances McDormand did a great job and Brad Pitt played a pretty funny role as an airhead fitness trainer. Overall I'd say the acting was a strong point in the film. It seemed a bit slow at times but I liked it.

- Dave
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Posted by Cheryl Gaer-Barlow (+483) 14 years ago
You know the movie I absolutly LOVE? "The Notebook". If I tell anyone, they say, "You've got to be kidding!"
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Also, a great movie is Napoleon Dynamite. I laughed so hard I cried.

GVC's wife
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Posted by M T Zook (+507) 14 years ago
Office Space and Super Troopers. Both are cult classics and I can't recommend enough. Did you just say meow?
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Posted by Bob Netherton (+1884) 14 years ago
No Country for Old Men, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Boogie Nights, Magnolia.

"Fargo" has to be one of my all time favorites. I love "Napolean Dynamite" but its a pretty harmless film so I wouldn't feel bad suggesting it to anyone.

If I don't see "Burn After Reading" in the theatre, I'll have to rent it.

Not to change the subject but I think Oliver Stone's release of "W" while Bush is still in office is in poor taste. I may have to rent it eventually, however.
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Posted by Bruce Helland (+590) 14 years ago
Clay Pigeons and Pi (the math symbol). Blade Runner and Pitch Black. In America and My Life as a House. Flushed Away and Ratatoulli. Just some I like.
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Posted by Don Muir (+24) 14 years ago
How about "Resivoir Dogs" Oh yea Buddy! and "Blazing Saddles" or "Who killed me in Missoula"
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Posted by Levi Forman (+3716) 14 years ago
Loved Fargo. Great movie. Ditto on Pulp Fiction. Not such a big Kevin Smith fan though. I liked Clerks, but most of his movies don't really do that much for me.

I liked Super Troopers also, and Superbad, but I am getting a little tired of Michael Cera playing the same person in every movie.

[This message has been edited by Levi Forman (edited 10/4/2008).]
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Ed Wood is a great but weird movie that few people get.

Shawn of the Dead is funny if you like cannibalistic zombies. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to my mother.

GVC's wife

[This message has been edited by GVC (edited 10/4/2008).]
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Posted by Billie (+23) 14 years ago
Bad Santa
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Posted by Dave Thompson (+68) 14 years ago
harold & kumar

what?

WHAT!!??
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Posted by M T Zook (+507) 14 years ago
Top Gun, used to be able to recite every line.
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Posted by David Schott (+18391) 14 years ago
>>Harold and Kumar

"Escape from Guantanamo Bay"? -- Excellent movie, Dave!
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Posted by Levi Forman (+3716) 14 years ago
I worshiped Top Gun when I was a kid. Don't know how many times I watched it and I played the soundtrack until the cassette stopped working.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay? Really? I had the misfortune of renting that and found it actually impossible to sit through. I entertained myself for a little while by predicting what the next joke was going to be, but in the end, I couldn't finish it.
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Posted by Amorette Allison (+12509) 14 years ago
Ed Wood. I forgot about Ed Wood. That is one fabulous and seriously uncomfortable movie!
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Posted by jackie stoeckel (+207) 14 years ago
i really like "life as a house" mentioned before. kevin kline is so versatile. has really grown from the days of Monty Python.

The three burials of Melquiades Estrada with Tommy Lee Jones. That was interesting. a bit gruesome but no worse than the horror flicks that were out.

Chocolat
and pretty much anything that Johnny Depp has been in.
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Posted by Chuck Schott (+1288) 14 years ago
A Clock Work Orange is one of my all time favorites. I guess that shows my age but probably not as much as if I where to tell you what conditions I was in when I first saw it.

I don't miss a chance to see Bubble Boy.
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
i really like "life as a house" mentioned before. kevin kline is so versatile. has really grown from the days of Monty Python.

Huh? I think you mean Michael Palin.

Anyway, let's get back to Amorette's initial post about movies that are guilty pleasures. Not ones that are generally popular or ordinary, but movies that you love but most people look at you as if you're crazy if you tell them that. Movies that maybe you are slightly embarrassed to love or ones that are so out there you couldn't recommend them to your mother (although I did recommend Fargo to mine and she loved it).

GVC's wife
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Posted by Stone (+1588) 14 years ago
"A Fish Called Wanda"

Blade Runner- Bruce you are awsome, that is one of my favorite movies. Based on the book "Do Androids Dream Electric Dreams" In the book Decker finds out that he is really an android. They played that down in the movie. To bad it made for an interesting twist.

"Four Weddings and a Funeral"
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Posted by Amorette Allison (+12509) 14 years ago
Remember when "A Clockwork Orange" first came out and we were appalled and fascinated by the extreme violence? Watch it today and it looks pretty tame.

Ah, but Malcolm McDowell was lovely and creepy in that film!
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Posted by Levi Forman (+3716) 14 years ago
Oh I thought of one. Tremors. If that movie is on cable I just can't pass it up. Kevin Bacon, giant worms with teeth, and Reba McEntire firing a machine gun. What more could you want in a movie?

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Posted by Crash (+126) 14 years ago
Blair Witch Project, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, Little Big Man, Airplane. Heartland with Rip Torn and Conchate Farrell is an amazing movie.
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Posted by Montana Kid (+117) 14 years ago
A while back they were showing Easy Rider on TV again. Nicholson was SO funny and Fonda's acting was SO bad! It's fun to watch old classics like that and Blazing Saddles again after so many years.
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Posted by Major Pain (+205) 14 years ago
"Orgasmo" is my pick.

This film manages to lampoon religion, pornography, marriage, relationships, martial arts, superheros, and our stereotypes of old ladies while being very funny most of the time. Definitely something I don't recommend for the faint of heart.
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Posted by jackie stoeckel (+207) 14 years ago
Back to "life as a house" actually i don't know why i keep associating Kevin Kline with Monty Python,maybe because there are times they are in the same movies that he is in. he seems like he should have been with them. But he is versatile just the same.

Monty Python's Holy Grail. some just don't get it. My favorite scene " I ain't dead yet scene: okay and then the coconut shells that the servants are using for sound effects behind king arthur. cracks me up every time. so many scenes.

Stoker's Dracula.

[This message has been edited by jackie stoeckel (edited 10/5/2008).]
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Posted by Amorette Allison (+12509) 14 years ago
I bought the special edition of "The Holy Grail" with commentary. I hadn't watched the movie in ages and was amused by how much I still had memorized. I think it was Hank Azaria who said, when he did "Spamalot" on Broadway, that he was off book the day he started.
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
Movies I loved that I would never recommend to my mother - yet both my sisters loved them too:

Team America! (in which a gang of marionettes carry the Bush doctrine to its logical (and crazily hilarious) conclusion while also proving that puppets have sex lives, too.)

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Children save the world, Saddam and Satan in love, and a song titled Blame Canada! - what more could you want in a musical?)
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
They play really bad '50s and '60s horrer/sci fi movies on Friday nights here an educational network here. Lots of Roger Corman. I love them.

GVC's wife
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Posted by Craig Bolton (+35) 14 years ago
Gummo


[This message has been edited by Craig Bolton (edited 10/5/2008).]
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Posted by ABC (+385) 14 years ago
Gummo-

Sounds kinda like a senior citizen bj porn movie.

ABC
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Ok. Here's the rest of my weird movie list.

This is Spinal Tap - dwarves dancing around a 3 foot Stonehenge
Muriel's Wedding - a girl from Porpoise Spit and ABBA music
Hedwig and the Angry Inch - transgendered Rock & Roll love story
Eating Raoul - enforcing the moral code through cannibalism
Brazil - Just plain weird and having nothing whatever to do with Brazil

GVC's wife
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Posted by Amorette Allison (+12509) 14 years ago
This is so much fun! I'm being reminded of so many weird movies I love. "Eating Raoul." Now there is one weirdly wonderful movie! And all that fabulous 50's furniture!
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Posted by Bruce Helland (+590) 14 years ago
Eating Raoul and Brazil were great! The original Phantasm sci-fi horror movie. Little known New Zealand film The Quiet Earth
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Posted by Bob Netherton (+1884) 14 years ago
Team America:World Police - Steve. That is a true classic.

AMERICA!!!! F%CK YEAH!!!
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
Hey Bob - Yeah, that line was pure genius. Just think, if Sarah Palin had watched Team America, when Charlie Gibson asked her to explain the Bush Doctine, she would have been able to explain it in three simple words.
OK, I'm sorry for getting political in a NON-political string. Bob made me do it!

BTW Bob: Boogie Nights was great. I thought I would hate it, but I ended up realizing that Marky Mark the singing underwear model was actually an actor named Mark Wahlberg the whole time.


OK, back to the topic. Here are two GREAT movies that were about as non-political as you can get -- still and yet, you would NEVER take your mother to either one.

--- Sordid Lives

--- The House of Yes

Foreign films next....

[This message has been edited by Steve Craddock (edited 10/5/2008).]
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Posted by Levi Forman (+3716) 14 years ago
Oh lord. Could we not talk about Sara Palin in the movie thread also?
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Posted by M T Zook (+507) 14 years ago
Foreign films... How about Strange Brew? Surely that was Canadian...

"Shirley, don't call me Shirley."

Airplane, another wonderful movie.
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Take off, hoser. It's a beauty way to go.


GVC's wife

[This message has been edited by GVC (edited 10/6/2008).]
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
Porky's - none of the copycats have even come close.

P.S. to Levi: It was just too good of a visual to resist. I already apologized.
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Posted by tjk (+22) 14 years ago
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind----Loved IT
Death At a Funeral----Freakin Hilarious
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Posted by Sarah Peterson (+378) 14 years ago
While I have yet to see it, Miracle at St. Anna was put into this category of "cautiously recommended" to me, and was compared to movies like Fargo where you enjoy watching it, but you have to be careful who you recommend it to lest they freak out after watching.
Anyone seen it yet?
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Posted by Gunnar Emilsson (+18349) 14 years ago
Hmmmm...I must be the only one here who LMFAO at "Borat"...
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
I was too chicken to see Borat but I'm sure it belongs on this list.

Here's a foreign film for Steve.

AALTRA

This movie is a hoot. Two neighbors who hate each other are made parapalegic in a farm accident by faulty equipment. The owner of the tractor heads out in his wheelchair to find the company who made the equipment and his neighbor sets out separately to get to a motocross tournament (he's a cycle nut.) They end up grudgingly travelling together cross country mostly in the wheelchairs. It is very wry but also hysterical at points. Highly recommended but you must be able to deal with subtitles.


GVC's wife

[This message has been edited by GVC (edited 10/6/2008).]
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Posted by Schmitz - Matt (+406) 14 years ago
Borat was outstanding for sure, but I was weirdly uncomfortable watching it in a theater with strangers around. The wrestling scene is likely the grossest thing I have ever seen on the big screen, but I was also laughing so hard I was crying for most of the movie.
I also enjoyed "Kingpin". Some seriously gross stuff in that movie too. But again, funny beyond compare.
And God forbid my mother is ever witness to either of those movies.
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
GVC's wife -- have you seen The Straight Story?

Fearless Vampire Killers (Sharon Tate was great!)

Favorite Foreign Films:
Amelie
Antonia's Line
Babette's Feast
Cinema Paradisio
The Color of Heaven
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Eat Drink Man Woman
Europa Europa
The Fourth Man
The Full Monty
Gosford Park
Hope and Glory
Kung Fu Hustle
Like Water for Chocolate
Ma Vie En Rose
My Life as a Dog
Red
Run Lola Run
Taste of Cherry

British TV ...
Two Fat Ladies
The Vicar of Dibley
Second Sight
Anything with Mr. Bean
Fawlty Towers
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Posted by Bob Netherton (+1884) 14 years ago
A "wrap-up" of sorts of Vicar of Dibley is or was available on the net. That was a really great show. My wife watched the last episode but I haven't seen it.

Borat - I didn't like the dumb Pamela Anderson ending but overall, I laughed until I cried. Singing the national anthem at a rodeo while inserting the lyrics of Kazahkstan's(sp??) anthem was classic. The church seen was also pretty awesome.
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
No, Steve, I haven't seen The Straight Story. What's it about?

I've seen most of your foreign films but you left off Waking Ned Devine, Solas and The Commitments. The Secret of Roan Inish is good, too, but I think it was actually made by Americans.

My British TV picks (in addition to Steve's)are

The Office - coarser than the American version but hysterical
Doctor Who (old and new) Tom Baker is God.
Rosemary and Thyme - reminds me of Murder She Wrote but better
Mr. Bean - 4 words, head up a turkey
Coupling - sexier and funnier Friends
Keeping Up Appearances- Patricia Routledge is a genius
Absolutely Fabulous
Graham Norton Show

And I have to admit an odd fondness for Bargain Hunt and Jeeves and Wooster

There was a detective show starring the guy who plays Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, that I also really liked but it hasn't been on BBC America for awhile.


Jeez. It looks like all I do is watch TV all day long.

gvc's wife
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Posted by K.Duffy (+1824) 14 years ago
Steve:
Was Second Sight the show with the detective that lived through being shot in the head? I loved that, but can't remember the name! I know they did an American version too.

Anyone else seen Shakes the Clown? It had it's great scenes, I wish they'd have played it up more...like the clowns attacking the mimes in the park.

[This message has been edited by K.Duffy (edited 10/7/2008).]
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Posted by Steve Craddock (+2735) 14 years ago
Oh man, how could I forget Waking Ned Devine! I'll have to check out the others.

The Straight Story is based on a true journey taken by a man (named Straight) of "limited means" who, in the December of life, realizes it is time to make amends with his long estranged brother. Only problem: His brother lives 600 miles away and Mr. Straight's only mode of transportation is a riding lawnmower. It's a "road story" full of wisdom and wit. Two thumbs up.

P.S. To K.Duffy - that's it. The "insightful" detective was played by Clive Owens in first big role.

[This message has been edited by Steve Craddock (edited 10/7/2008).]
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Cracker was the name of the detective show. He was a middle-aged alcoholic psychiatrist with personal problems who helped the police force solve murders. I love that Britain seems to accept actors of all kinds and not just Barbie and Ken doll pretty ones.

gvc's wife
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Posted by tjk (+22) 14 years ago
Punch Drunk Love-I'm not sure if this movie had a plot, but i did watch all of if. (interesting)
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Posted by Tucker Bolton (+3861) 14 years ago
Worthy of a second mention, "Gummo" and thanks Craig. This is available on Netflix. Be aware, this is a disturbing movie.
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Posted by Bill Gierke (+83) 14 years ago
The Gods Must Be Crazy

I probably enjoyed this because of my sick sense of humor!
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Posted by GVC (+519) 14 years ago
Another foreign one:

Kontroll - about ticket inspectors and random murders in the Budapest subway. Black comedy murder mystery and love story.

gvc's wife
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Posted by Ken Minow (+379) 14 years ago
I agree on Shakes the Clown-definitely some black humor there.
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Posted by hilinetransplant (+133) 14 years ago
I always liked " never cry wolf" great movie. Others i've enjoyed are.

sling blade
one flew over the cookoos nest
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Posted by Bob L. (+5098) 14 years ago
Ha!

I do like them french fried potaters.........mmmmm..hhmmmm
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Posted by hilinetransplant (+133) 14 years ago
mmm hmmmm
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Posted by hilinetransplant (+133) 14 years ago
Also i love the sergio leone, once upon a time movies.
once upon a time in america
once upon a time in the west.
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Posted by Bob L. (+5098) 14 years ago
"Yes, ma'am. I've killed Doyle Hargraves with a lawnmower blade. Yes, ma'am, I'm right sure of it. I hit him two good whacks in the head with it. That second one just plum near cut his head in two... It's a lil' ol' white house on the corner of Vine Street and some other street. There's a pick-up truck out front that says "Doyle Hargraves Construction" on it. Doyle said besides sending the police, you might wanna send an ambulance or a "hearst". I'll be sitting here, waiting on 'ya. "
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