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June 2007
Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’ c’est magnifique
Walt Disney famously proclaimed, “I hope we never lose sight of one thing: That it was all started by a mouse.”
Now Pixar has completed the circle - with a rat.
With Ratatouille, writer-director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) has made not only Pixar’s zaniest movie, but the movie that best reflects the secret to the company’s storytelling success: not being content merely to follow the recipe. As the character Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett) explains in the film, “Anyone can cook. But only the fearless can be great.”
Remy (standup comic Patton Oswalt), a rat with an acute sense of smell and taste, idolizes Chef Gusteau and his freewheeling outlook on life. This rat wants to be a great French chef too. Unfortunately, his confused brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and his disapproving father (Brian Dennehy) fail to see the point of Remy’s ambitions. Why not just take whatever food you can find and wolf it down like everyone else, they wonder?
When Remy is separated from his family after a harrowing and astoundingly animated journey through the sewers, he ends up in Paris at the restaurant once run by Chef Gusteau. There, he meets Linguini (Lou Romano), a clueless kid who needs a job but can’t cook to save his life.
Remy and Linguini (but mostly Remy) think up an ingenious and very silly scheme in which Remy will hide under Linguini’s chef’s hat and control Linguini’s actions marionette-style, like a tiny Geppetto to Linguini’s Pinocchio.
They eventually get the routine down pretty well, but have some tough nemeses to please, including the eternally irritated head chef Skinner (Ian Holm) and the dour food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole), whose voice positively oozes condescension.
Speaking of critics, most of them have been very positive about Ratatouille. Yet I’m baffled at how one review after another says, in essence, “Wow, it’s such an adult movie. Will the kids really like it?”
Of course they’ll like it, if the kids who laughed at the comedy and hushed at the drama at my screening are any indication. Granted, haute cuisine may not be as easy to sell to kids as toys that come to life or cars that can talk. But if The Incredibles was Bird’s James Bond movie in superhero garb, then Ratatouille is his Looney Tunes movie in a chef’s hat and apron.
In addition to the slapstick of Remy and Linguini, there are several chases that move with amazing grace and speed, zipping under, over, through and around Paris. Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe le Pew would be proud, as would animation legends Chuck Jones and Tex Avery.
And the visual delights aren’t limited to physical comedy. We get to see what great taste looks like, in more ways than one.
When Remy and Emile sample various kinds of food, Bird and his animators visualize what they taste by having fireworks, swirls and spirals swoosh around their heads in a marvelous display of imagination. Then there’s the actual food. Only Pixar could make digitally animated cuisine look so sumptuous.
Beyond that, children and adults will all be able to relate to the struggle of knowing that you could be great at something, and not being able to express it. It’s the kind of universal emotion that Pixar taps into with unmatched potency.
There are a few hiccups in the storytelling, stemming mostly from the fact that Bird came in late to save the initially troubled project and maybe overplotted it just a touch. But to dwell on such minor flaws would be to miss the point, just like those critics trying so intently to find the kid appeal in Ratatouille.
Bird said in a recent interview, “I can’t think of one other art form that has its audience so narrowly defined. If you work in animation, people tell you, ‘Oh, it must be wonderful to entertain children.’ Yes it is. But that’s 10 percent of the audience I’m going for.”
Pixar doesn’t make films for children. They never have. They make films for everyone by keeping their imaginations and their movies open to so many possibilities.
Some people have said they wish that Pixar could take their magic touch and sell it. They do already. It’s called a movie ticket. Buy several to Ratatouille and savor its delights.
GRADE: A+
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Bad Boys II - Worst movie EVER!
Some bad movies are stupid. Others are poorly filmed. A number of them are downright offensive.
Bad Boys II, directed by none other than Michael Bay, earns the dubious honor of being all three. It’s the antithesis of Singin’ in the Rain. When I see that movie, I feel on top of the world. When I saw Bad Boys II, I hated the world.
I came out of that theater incensed. I wanted two and a half hours of my life back, plus interest. And new brain cells, eardrums and optic nerves would have been nice too.
How mad was I? I wrote the following review in the heat of the moment, so it should give you some idea. I held nothing back to the point that I’ve had to censor this review to make it suitable for this blog. I applied the “Breakfast Club on TV” filter to it. Read on, if you dare.
Memo to Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay
From a truly disgusted film critic
Good God, Jerry and Mike. Where do I start in writing about Bad Boys II? I’ve always known you guys are the premier purveyors of cinematic wretched excess, but until this movie I didn’t know that you’re also a couple of sick [fools].
I know that’s harsh, guys, but what else am I supposed to think about a movie that wallows in being as repulsive as possible? What am I to make of the chase scene in which dead bodies spill out the back of a van, and a pursuing car beheads one of them?
And what the [heck] was the deal with the shot that shows two rats [showing they love each other very much], Mike? Has it been your secret ambition to be a documenatarian for National Geographic, and this is the best you could come up with? Or is that how you learned about the deed and you wanted to share?
I guess the point of these lovely scenes is humor; the lemmings I watched the movie with laughed loud and long at both of them. I weep for humanity.
I know I sound like a tightwad, but you know what? I don’t care. Until now, you’ve never gone to such lengths to be offensive. It’s like you guys sat together and said, “Let’s take a big chunk of our money and see just how much [shoot] we can get away with.”
But what’s the point of spending all that money if you get nothing from it? Mike, you have a reputation for being one of the more, um - aggressive action directors we have, and I’ll actually admit, you’re not without talent. But you have an uncanny ability to sabotage your own good ideas.
For instance, in one of the highway chases, the villains are driving a car carrier, and they detach the cars one by one, so bingo - instant obstacle course. Good idea, Mike. Too bad you totally [fouled] up the execution. There are so many edits in the scene - cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut - that I couldn’t tell where anyone or anything was.
Then there’s the shootout in the druggies’ house in which the camera whips around in a circle from one room to another, ducking through bullet holes and the like. Yeah, you ripped it off from Panic Room and Swordfish, (which, ironically, ripped off you), but it’s still a good idea. SO WHY DO YOU KEEP CUTTING AWAY FROM IT AND INTERRUPTING THE FLOW??
And the word flow reminds me - why in God’s name is this movie two and a half hours long? So you could include the scene in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence discuss a bullet wound in the butt and a crowd of department store shoppers think they’re gay lovers?
And what’s with the scene in which a young kid taking Lawrence’s daughter on a date is terrorized by Lawrence and Smith, who waves a gun in his face and asks him, “You ever have sex with a man? Want to?”
Get a load of that! You use the scene for a cheap laugh and make your stars and yourselves look like homophobes in the process. It’s especially dispiriting to see Will Smith stoop so low. Did you kick him an extra million to get him to say those lines?
There’s so much more I could talk about, like the scene in which the camera ogles a dead woman’s breast implants, but even you should have the smarts to get my point by now: You went too far this time. It’s enough to make me want to retreat to the relative comfort of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. At least McG and his gals aren’t into necrophilia.
I know Mike was the one calling the shots on this, Jerry, but since you’re his boss, you share responsibility for Bay’s misdeeds. It’s a shame because I had liked most of your movies lately. With Remember the Titans, Black Hawk Down and Pirates of the Caribbean under your belt you actually seemed to have acquired taste, Bad Company and Kangaroo Jack notwithstanding. But you’ll have to make something as classy as Vertigo to get back in my good graces. And, no, making me sick with one of Bay’s chase scenes does NOT count.
Yes, there should be room for dumb action movies where every other shot is an explosion - but for every kind of movie, there is a line of taste to be drawn, and Bad Boys II crosses it by a country mile. It’s the worst movie of this year, and of your careers.
Now I’m sure you and the less discriminating members of your audience would respond to me by saying, “Man, it’s only a movie.” Or as somebody on the Rolling Stone message boards so delicately put it, in their unique spelling, “ya its sick humor but it didnt stop the whole theature from rumbling with laughter.this is what i want some critqes to do for a change. Grow a spine and [some gumption]. then untighten their [posterior] so they can stop breaking wind out of their ears and [getting oral diarrhea.]”
You must be so proud to have such articulate defenders, guys! I’ll tell you and your fans what, though. I’ll take that advice. I’ll grow a “spine and [some gumption]” when you grow a brain and a sense of decency. But I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.
GRADE: F-
Whew! OK, now that that little tirade is over, let me ask you - are there any movies that make you so mad you want to throw a brick through whatever screen is playing it? What are some of your very least favorites?
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Early buzz on ‘Transformers’
I’ll get back to my reviews of Michael Bay’s movies this afternoon (Coming down: Bad Boys II) but for the moment, I thought I’d share some interesting comments I found on the Hot Blog this morning. Writer David Poland has seen the movie and says:
“Transformers is one of DreamWorks’ more expensive children’s animated films. But Badagascar did $193 million domestic and Cars did $244 million domestic, so Transformers can do $200 million too. The big advantage of those films is that they weren’t insufferably long with unnecessary exposition designed to seek the females and adult males who will never come… unless they have visitation next Saturday and need to score points with the kid.”
One of the movie’s producers, Don Murphy, responds by saying: “I am starting to get it now. If the theatre is clapping and cheering and the audience really enjoys it you have to say nasty things about it. Anyway, again, BIGGEST FILM OF THE SUMMER.”
This is where I point that audiences who get into movies for free will applaud just about anything. Heck, Mr. Deeds got applause. Poland also notes “Plenty of free booze too… the adults needed it.”
I’ll review it next Tuesday, still trying to keep an open mind. Meanwhile, make of this what you will …
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‘Live Free or Die Hard’ recharges John McClane
We interrupt this week of Michael Bay battering to bring you a GOOD action movie!
When we last left John McClane in Die Hard with a Vengeance, he was in serious trouble. Unwisely shoehorned into a script that was originally meant for the Lethal Weapon series, McClane had lost his edge. It was a major comedown after a classic first installment, followed by a very solid part two.
When I heard a fourth movie was in the works, I gritted my teeth, worrying that time had passed John McClane by in a sea of James Bonds, Ethan Hunts and Jason Bournes.
Well, guess what? Time has indeed passed John McClane by, and that’s exactly why Live Free or Die Hard marks a return to form, if not full strength. Despite a few defects, this film delivers.
What makes John McClane so effective is he gets the job done the old-fashioned way. Live Free or Die Hard works because it smartly brings John McClane kicking and screaming into the 21st century, calling him a “Timex in a digital world.” So that makes McClane the perfect man to foil a plot by techno-terrorists to sabotage any system controlled by computers, which these days means, well - just about everything.
Dragged along for the ride is Matt Farrell (Justin Long), a computer hacker who speaks the bad guys’ language but isn’t the most macho sidekick in the world. Long is surprisingly effective in the role, and I was especially grateful the script let his part speak for itself without cracking any obvious Mac vs. PC jokes.
The director is Len Wiseman, who filmed the underrated Underworld and its unnecessary sequel, Underworld: Evolution. He’s not up to the level of original helmer John McTiernan (heck, McTiernan hasn’t been up to his original level in years), but Wiseman orchestrates the action slickly and efficiently. A nasty fight between Bruce Willis and Maggie Q in an elevator shaft is among the best scenes in this series.
Ironically, one of the film’s mis-steps is an overuse of digital effects. Most of the action scenes appear to use real live people, but there were a few moments, like a near-miss encounter with a flying car, when McClane and company were too obviously ducking in front of a bluescreen or greenscreen or whatever color they used.
The movie also doesn’t score highly in the originality department, with the finale stolen straight out of James Cameron’s True Lies, jet plane, daughter in jeopardy, and all. I was disappointed that the daughter, played by the talented Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High), didn’t figure more in the action, since the movie makes it clear that not taking any guff runs in the family.
It’s telling that in my original draft of this review, I completely forgot to mention the main villain, played by Timothy Olyphant, which shows you what an impression he made on me. It’s not Olyphant’s fault - he does what he can with what he’s given, which is not much. The character’s scheme to usurp the nation’s computers is more compelling than the character.
To hear the geek crowd talk, you’d think another problem might be this film’s PG-13 rating when all the other Die Hards were rated R. Truthfully, I didn’t notice much of a difference. The violence is less gory and the wisecracks are less profane, but to complain that this will ruin the movie shows a remarkable lack of faith in Willis.
Maybe he can’t mouth off like he used to, but in Willis’ hands, McClane is as tough, funny and durable as ever. It’s good to have him back, warts and all. To get back to that Timex analogy, he takes a lickin’ and - aw, you know how it goes.
GRADE: B
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Battering Bay: Pearl Harbor
Continuing with my series of reviews of the movies directed by the dark sorcerer of action flicks, Michael Bay, today I shoot down his attempt at wartime romance. (Review written at the time of the release, in 2001.)
Memo to Jerry Bruckheimer
From a sorely let down movie-goer
Well, Jerry, I just recently watched the bombs fall on Pearl Harbor, and you know what? The bombs weren’t the only thing that fell. My heart sank too.
UGH! That last line I wrote was AWFUL! Darnit, Jerry, that terrible dialogue in the movie is rubbing off on me!
But really, Jerry, you disappoint me. I had high hopes for Pearl Harbor, for a couple of reasons. You actually went 2 for 3 last year. Yeah, you had your lousy junk with Gone in Sixty Seconds, but you also gave us good junk with Coyote Ugly, and then you came along with Remember the Titans, which was a very solid dramatization of a true story.
I was kind of hoping Pearl Harbor would be a kind of combination of these two: good action movie junk crossed with a moving rendition of a true story, which in this case, just happened to be one of the most pivotal moments in world history.
And then there was that dynamite trailer you put together with that jaw-dropping bomb’s eye view shot. That was one of the very best trailers I’d seen recently, and I was sold. I was concerned because I thought the love triangle of two pilots falling for the same nurse sounded awfully cornball, and because Michael Bay was directing. I had not liked Armageddon, but Bay can certainly deliver on the big bam boom, so I was hopeful.
Then I saw the movie.
It seems you and Bay have gone through a bit of an identity crisis. I didn’t know you wanted to be Jim Cameron so badly. Your movie so baldly rips off the Titanic model of love story set against historical disaster, it’s positively distracting. One of your big “romantic” scenes actually takes place outside a big boat, the Queen Mary, with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale trying to move up along the side. Too bad they didn’t get on. They could have sailed away and the movie would have been a hell of a lot shorter.
And speaking of length, that’s a major problem, Jerry. Your movie did NOT deserve to be three hours long. Titanic earned its length by creating characters we actually cared about. Sure, people ragged on Cameron for some of his rather tinny dialogue, but the lines he came up with sang like lines from Casablanca compared to the tripe you served up here.
I can do no better than to quote A.O. Scott from the New York Times, who wrote, “She: It’s your nose that hurts. He: No, it’s my heart. Me: No, it’s my stomach.” If credited writer Randall Wallace wrote this stuff, he must want to prove that his script for Braveheart was a fluke.
The love story just was a bust all around, Jerry. It’s not the actors’ fault, really. I thought Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale were charming, though I thought Ben Affleck was kind of in a fog. Maybe he was reacting to the dialogue, who can say? But romance just isn’t your strong suit, Jerry. Nor is it Bay’s. A friend of mine has wondered aloud if maybe losing your virginity involved animal crackers or parachutes. It’s just silly, silly, boring stuff.
And here’s a tip for you regarding that silly way Affleck and Beckinsale meet: when I’m getting a shot in the butt from a nurse, I don’t care how cute the nurse is. I’m not exactly thinking romantic thoughts.
But what about the action, I hear you asking? Well, Jerry, your 40-minute attack scene does indeed deliver the goods, but I had problems with it, too, I’m sorry to say.
Let me get one thing straight. I’m glad to see you taught Michael to use a tripod for this movie, and I see you’ve gotten him to relax a little. Pearl Harbor is not nearly as frenzied as Armageddon, for which I was grateful, but Bay still has one big problem: he loves to create shots simply for the look of them without checking to see if they make any logical sense.
Case in point: the shot of the kids playing baseball who watch the Japanese zeros zoom overhead. It’s a cool-looking shot, but come on…what kid is playing baseball shortly before 7 a.m. on a Sunday, when the attack took place?
Still, for the most part, I thought the attack worked. I liked the true story of Dorie Miller, the Navy cook played by Cuba Gooding Jr. who took to the machine guns without any formal training. It’s just too bad he only gets about 10 minutes of screen time. I also liked Jon Voight’s performance as FDR. Things like this tell me that had your movie at least toned down (if not dropped) the romance and focused on the war, it might have worked. It would have had too many other problems to be a great movie, but at least it would have been tolerable.
Most importantly, with that approach, you would have done much more to honor not only the thousands of veterans who were injured or killed that day, but the veterans who won the war in their memory.
A lot of critics go on about how From Here to Eternity is a much better movie that combines romance with Pearl Harbor, but I wasn’t expecting your movie to be that good. I was hoping to at least see a new, improved version of Tora Tora Tora.
But by pandering to your lowest-common-denominator instincts and trying to ape someone else’s success, you’ve turned the story of the greatest generation into a dime-store romance novel with some cool action scenes. I find it telling that I could find no dedication to the veterans anywhere in your movie.
GRADE: C-
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Home (Re)Viewing: Shooter, Black Snake Moan
The video outlets this week offer a not half-bad action thriller, and a strange but affecting drama from the director of Hustle & Flow.
Shooter: Between Four Brothers, The Departed and now this, Mark Wahlberg has developed solid action-hero credentials. In this kind of inversion of In the Line of Fire, he plays a marksman assigned to protect the president from assassins, but the baddies turn the tables on him and frame him. It’s never too hard to guess where the movie is headed, and it suffers from the multiple endings syndrome that drags down many a thriller these days, but Wahlberg and co-stars Michael Pena (his Secret Service ally) and Kate Mara (the haunted love interest) put it across. Full review. GRADE: B-
Black Snake Moan: Craig Brewer’s follow-up to Hustle & Flow didn’t find much of an audience in theaters, and it’s not hard to see why: the story of a tortured bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) trying to cure a raging nymphomaniac (Christina Ricci) isn’t exactly megaplex fare. But its very strangeness is an asset, making it less than predictable. The two leads are fantastic together, and Ricci has never been better. Indeed, their story is so compelling that when Brewer tries to focus on Ricci’s beau (Justin Timberlake, in a strong turn), the movie loses steam because that subplot isn’t as well written. Still, Brewer maintains his extremely strong gift for creating a sense of place and picking a killer soundtrack. GRADE: B+
Also out today
Pride: The latest in the line of inspiring true life sports dramas starred Bernie Mac and Terrence Howard in the story of a swim team. It didn’t make much of a splash at the box office, but it’s one of those films that’s bound to have a long shelf life on DVD.
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Battering Bay: Armageddon
Transformers shape-shifts into theaters on Tuesday July 3, so I’d like to spend the intervening time kicking Michael Bay around by posting my reviews of most of his films. For awhile now I’ve been writing them in the style of my “Memo to” reviews that you might have read for Deja Vu and Pirates of the Caribbean: At What End.
Why bash Bay? More than anything else, it’s therapeutic. No single director working today has been more responsible for short-circuiting my nervous system more than the director of Armageddon, Bad Boys 2 and Pearl Harbor, among others. After his lengthy sensory assaults, I come out half-blind, with my temples just throbbing. Even the almighty Nyquil takes time to work its pulsing, aching, stuffy-head, fever so I can rest magic.
So since I don’t have any fun watching Bay’s movies, darn it, I’m going to have fun explaining exactly why they go wrong.
None of this means that I think Bay is a complete hack. He has a singular gift for making carnage look slick. From the sweat to the blood to the smoke, everything just glistens. Heck, even the mud is kind of pretty.
That said, the man has only told a story semi-coherently once, in The Rock, and you know what? I wish he would make more movies like that.
Honest to god, I do not look forward to tearing Bay’s movies down. I don’t want to have a bad time at any film. If I did, it would make me a poor critic. If Transformers actually turns out to be good, then I will give Mr. Bay due credit, although I will have to reinsert my eyeballs first. If Rob Schneider can make peace with Roger Ebert, I can do the same with Michael Bay.
But if he bludgeons me yet again with his swirling cameras and his chainsaw editing style, then he’s going to get the hammering he deserves like the one that follows.
Note that the following review was written some years ago and was directed at Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced most of his movies. Bay would take a more direct hit later, as you will see in the coming days.
Memo to Jerry Bruckheimer, Producer
From A temporarily deaf critic
Just because you fill your movie with enough action scenes for ten movies doesn’t mean it’s as good as those ten movies put together. It only means that your movie is ten times as aggravating. Some scenes were fairly thrilling but by the end, I felt like I’d been hit 1,000 times by the asteroid and lived.
Jerry, I’m actually something of a sucker for a good action flick, but I want one that thrills me by having not only action but a story where I want the characters to live. In this movie, I honestly don’t think I would have cared if everybody became asteroid pancakes, except for Billy Bob Thornton as the NASA chief. For whatever reason, you let him create an interesting character, and the other actors could have done that, too, if they weren’t so busy spitting out dumb one-liners.
My suggestion to you is this, Jerry: You know how to cast your movies well enough; now find some screenwriters that can actually give your actors interesting things to do and say. And I don’t mean hiring ten writers to work on the script piecemeal. Find one or two good writers and let them write a story rather than a series of set pieces. You did it before with Crimson Tide, and you can do it again.
Oh, and one more thing Jerry. Tell your director, Michael Bay, to calm down a little, willya? The man’s got some talent in there somewhere, but he’s going a little too haywire. I think Entertainment Weekly’s critic had it right when he said Bay directs like he’s got a live tiger shark caught in his underwear. It might help if you teach him how to use a tripod.
Good luck. You’re going to need it.
GRADE: D
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‘Evan’ is just alright with me
Evan Almighty lies in a kind of cinematic purgatory. It’s neither funny enough to qualify as movie heaven, nor irritating enough to qualify as movie hell, as most critics would have you believe.
And they have a point, I must admit. When one of a movie’s strong points is that it’s the best Jim Carrey-less sequel to date, that might be what they call damning with faint praise, since the points of comparison are Son of the Mask and Dumb and Dumberer. At the very least, the makers of Bruce Almighty - including director Tom Shadyac and writer Steve Oedekirk - return for this follow-up.
Still, Evan Almighty didn’t take long to get off on the wrong foot. Five minutes hadn’t passed by before we got our first crotch gag, which was immediately followed by the first of many poop gags. I stiffened and steeled myself for what looked to be a long 95 minutes. Is this what we get for the new “family friendly” appeal?
As the movie went on, however, I started to relax and managed to start smiling here and there. There are three reasons for this: Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman and Wanda Sykes.
Carell plays Evan Baxter, who was the snotty anchorman in Bruce Almighty. He not only seems like a much nicer guy, but has also been elected to Congress. I guess that’s what one calls a miracle.
So perhaps Evan shouldn’t be so surprised when the jovial God (Freeman) appears, asking that Evan build an ark in anticipation of a flood. Much to the amazement of his family and his associates, like his office assistant played by Sykes, Evan starts growing a long beard, wearing biblical garb, and being followed by multiple pairs of animals.
Evan Almighty is often incredibly juvenile and unimaginative, yet it’s amusing and amiable because the actors I mentioned are so appealing. Carell hits just the right notes of incredulity, yet he’s also believable when he starts to buy into his role as a modern day Noah because he’s willing to look ridiculous.
Freeman once again is delightful as the Supreme Being, clearly reveling in a rare chance to show a silly side while still projecting the gravitas that comes naturally to him. Sykes delivers a good amount of snappy one-liners like “How come you sound like Evan Baxter but look like a Bee Gee?” I’m willing to bet Sykes went off the predictable script.
Yes, many of the visual effects are cheesy, especially the big flood, but I don’t expect Star Wars - level effects from a movie by the director of Patch Adams. And a few too many of the plot contrivances can be explained away by saying, “Hey it’s God - he can do whatever he wants,” like making Washington D.C. flood even though there’s nary a hill in that area.
That’s the thing about cinematic purgatory, though. It cleanses you so you can move on to better things. When Evan Almighty was over, I was glad I saw it - and didn’t feel the need to see it ever again.
PS I would like to call for a new movie commandment: Thou shalt never again stage a scene where everyone boogies to C+C Music Factory. Oy!
GRADE: B-
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AFI’s new top 100 movies of all time
Nearly ten years ago, the American Film Institute unveiled its list of the top 100 films of all time, as selected by a poll of filmmakers, critics and other such cinematic sorts. Last night the AFI revealed a new list, obviously allowing for the films released since then. It’s made for some very interesting changes.
Here is the old list from 1998, and the new list appears below with commentary. A title’s previous ranking appears in parentheses.
1 - (1) Citizen Kane, 1941.
I often hear people say they don’t “get” why this film always comes out on top in such lists. And I feel sorry for them. They’re missing out. I catch something new almost every time I see it.
2 - (3) The Godfather, 1972.
Quite understandable, but I much prefer Goodfellas.
3 - (2) Casablanca, 1942.
Only the premier example of golden age studio filmmaking that isn’t a musical. Puts Gone with the Wind to shame. (More on that in a minute.)
4 - (24) Raging Bull, 1980.
Takes a well-deserved leap up the chart. It is indeed Scorsese’s greatest.
5 - (10) Singin’ in the Rain, 1952.
Sheer bliss.
6 - (4) Gone With the Wind, 1939.
Probably the most massively overrated film of all time. Some undeniably great moments, but it falls flat after the intermission. Wouldn’t make my top 500, much less 100.
7 - (5) Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.
The epic to end all epics. I don’t care how big your TV is; if you’ve only watched it at home, you have not truly seen it.
8 - (9) Schindler’s List, 1993.
We agree it’s Spielberg’s best.
9 - (61) Vertigo, 1958.
We agree it’s Hitchcock’s best. Another well deserved leap up.
10 - (6) The Wizard of Oz, 1939.
I’ve been on the stage where part of this was filmed. And the studio tour guide barely even mentioned it, focusing instead on a Tony Danza TV law drama. Wha??
11 - (76) City Lights, 1931.
Features the most exquisitely happy ending of all time.
12 - (96) The Searchers, 1956.
Yet another well-deserved upgrade. My favorite Western is High Noon, but I’ve no complaints. It is John Ford and John Wayne’s crowning achievement.
13 - (13) Star Wars, 1977.
Like I said before, Empire may be better made, but this one endures, because that thrill of discovery can never be duplicated.
14 - (18) Psycho, 1960.
Got to see the master print of this courtesy of the late Janet Leigh. Amazing.
15 (22) 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
Kubrick’s best.
16 - (12) Sunset Blvd., 1950.
Billy Wilder’s best without cross-dressers.
17 - (7) The Graduate, 1967.
I understand the fondness for it, but it hasn’t aged that well.
18 - (new) The General, 1927.
Buster Keaton’s great work is the highest debut. Rather astounding it wasn’t on the list before.
19 - (8) On the Waterfront, 1954.
Takes a rather steep dive. My favorite Brando performance.
20 - (11) It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946.
Anybody who dismisses this as sentimental goo isn’t paying attention.
21 - (19) Chinatown, 1974.
The best color noir film. Maybe the best noir in any shade.
22 - (14) Some Like It Hot, 1959.
Never fails to slay me, even on the 47th viewing.
23 - (21) The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.
24 - (25) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.
25 - (34) To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.
26 - (29) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939.
Jimmy Stewart’s greatest performance.
27 - (33) High Noon, 1952.
28 - (16) All About Eve, 1950.
Every line just sparkles. And/or zings.
29 - (38) Double Indemnity, 1944.
Probably the best black and white noir.
30 - (28) Apocalypse Now, 1979.
Platoon is a more realistic and maybe better movie, but as a sensory experience, this film is hard to top.
31 - (23) The Maltese Falcon, 1941.
Well, it is among the greatest of detective dramas.
32 - (32) The Godfather Part II, 1974.
33 - (20) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975.
34 - (49) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.
What a shame this is the only Disney movie on the list. It isn’t even the best movie made in Walt’s era. That’s Pinocchio.
35 - (31) Annie Hall, 1977.
Some people may prefer Crimes and Misdemeanors or Manhattan or Hannah and Her Sisters, but I’m fine with this being the Woody Allen representative.
36 - (13) The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.
37 - (37) The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.
The best homefront movie ever made; still amazingly effective 61 years later.
38 - (30) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.
39 - (26) Dr. Strangelove, 1964.
Contains the funniest speech of all time: the president’s phone call to the Russian premier.
40 - (55) The Sound of Music, 1965.
Certainly lots of fun, but I’d trade this for Mary Poppins in a heartbeat.
41 - (43) King Kong, 1933.
42 - (27) Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.
43 - (36) Midnight Cowboy, 1969.
44 - (51) The Philadelphia Story, 1940.
45 - (69) Shane, 1953.
46 - (35) It Happened One Night, 1934.
The prototypical romantic comedy. This is the one that invented all the cliches.
47 - (45) A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951.
48 - (42) Rear Window, 1954.
My second-favorite Hitchcock, with my favorite female entrance of all time. Grace Kelly. Mmmmm.
49 - (new) Intolerance, 1916.
So this kicks off Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith’s other seminal film. Seems pollsters couldn’t get past the racism this time.
50 - (new) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.
Interesting that they picked this particular title. I would have combined all three films into one entry.
Second half of the list follows, along with fall-offs from the first chart.
51 - (41) West Side Story, 1961.
52 - (47) Taxi Driver, 1976.
53 - (79) The Deer Hunter, 1978.
I’m surprised this moved up the chart - and that it made the list at all. Often very powerful, but it’s over-the-top scenes (Russian roulette, anyone?) sink it. There’s no WAY this is better than Platoon.
54 - (56) M-A-S-H, 1970.
55 - (40) North by Northwest, 1959.
56 - (48) Jaws, 1975.
57 - (78) Rocky, 1976.
Makes quite the leap up. Maybe Rocky Balboa helped?
58 - (74) The Gold Rush, 1925.
59 - (new) Nashville, 1975.
Why wasn’t Robert Altman’s crowning achievement on the list last time?
60 - (85) Duck Soup, 1933.
Night at the Opera is my favorite Marx, but this is a close second.
61 - (new) Sullivan’s Travels, 1941.
Another surprising omission from the previous list. This movie wonderfully exemplifies the healing powers of film.
62 - (77) American Graffiti, 1973.
63 - (new) Cabaret, 1972.
I prefer the stage musical.
64 - (66) Network, 1976.
If they ranked film’s by predictive powers, this would be number one. An amazing foreshadowing of the shallowing of TV.
65 - (17) The African Queen, 1951.
Makes an alarming plummet, but I think I know why: its lack of availability on DVD. Will someone free up the rights, please?
66 - (60) Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.
My favorite of Spielberg’s popcorn pics.
67 - (new) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , 1966.
I am, if I’m watching The Hours.
68 - (98) Unforgiven, 1992.
Seems Eastwood’s hot streak of late has improved this film’s placement - as well it should.
69 - (62) Tootsie, 1982.
One of at least four films on the list that mentions Ohio or an Ohio city, or was shot in Ohio. Can you name the others?
70 - (46) A Clockwork Orange, 1971.
71 - (new) Saving Private Ryan, 1998.
72 - (new) The Shawshank Redemption, 1994.
No surprise that this appears here, with the way its reputation has built over the years. And it’s interesting that it placed higher than the Oscar nominees from that same year: Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump.)
73 - (50) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.
74 - (65) The Silence of the Lambs, 1991.
75 - (new) In the Heat of the Night, 1967.
76 - (71) Forrest Gump, 1994.
Guess the hipsters who say Pulp Fiction is better weren’t polled all that strongly.
77 - (new) All the President’s Men, 1976.
78 - (81) Modern Times, 1936.
79 - (80) The Wild Bunch, 1969.
80 - (93) The Apartment, 1960.
81 - (new) Spartacus, 1960.
Over Ben-Hur. Interesting. And I think I agree, actually.
82 - (new) Sunrise, 1927.
This has been on my DVR for awhile. Now I need to get cracking and watch it.
83 - (new) Titanic, 1997.
Sneer all you want, but I’ll take this over Gone With the Wind any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
84 - (88) Easy Rider, 1969.
85 - (new) A Night at the Opera, 1935.
So this wasn’t on the list before. Maybe it got squeezed out at the last second.
86 - (83) Platoon, 1986.
Should be much higher.
87 - (new) 12 Angry Men, 1957.
The best courtroom drama ever made.
88 - (97) Bringing Up Baby, 1938.
Gloriously silly. My favorite golden age comedy, after Some Like It Hot.
89 - (new) The Sixth Sense, 1999.
Has one of the great endings, though I’m not convinced it’s one of the top 100.
90 - Swing Time, 1936.
Astaire and Rogers finally make the list, where they jolly well belong.
91 - (new) Sophie’s Choice, 1982.
92 - (94) Goodfellas, 1990.
Should be much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much HIGHER.
93 - (70) The French Connection, 1971.
94 - (95) Pulp Fiction, 1994.
95 - (new) The Last Picture Show, 1971.
Another surprising no-show that is welcome here.
96 - (new) Do the Right Thing, 1989.
One of the best films of the 80s.
97 - (new) Blade Runner, 1982.
Maybe anticipation for the “Final Cut” edged it on.
98 - (100) Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.
99 - (new) Toy Story, 1995.
I prefer the sequel, actually.
100 (72) Ben-Hur, 1959.
Off the List
Doctor Zhivago (39)
Surely the least great of David Lean’s acclaimed epics, but its disappearance after a farily high placement is alarming.
Birth of a Nation (44)
Replaced by Intolerance
From Here to Eternity (54)
Too bad. It still holds up quite well.
Amadeus (53)
Like the film a lot, but I don’t miss it on the list.
All Quiet on the Western Front (54)
The Third Man (57)
Oops. This needs to go back on. Its black and white photography, zither music and Orson Welles’ entrance demand it.
Or … was it disqualified because it’s British? And if so, why was it on the list before?
Fantasia (58)
Another oops. This still looks revolutionary now, even in our CG-obsessed age.
Rebel Without a Cause (59)
And still another oops. How can one not include the ultimate embodiment of teen angst?
Stagecoach (63)
Considering how the Searchers bounced up, this bounce-off is an eyebrow-raiser. It only put John Wayne on the map. And I strongly prefer it to Shane.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (64)
Spielberg says it’s the film that dates him the most. But I’d still keep it.
The Manchurian Candidate (67)
Pity. This one is a heartbreaking stunner. And another film I saw with Janet Leigh.
An American in Paris (68)
Great score, great big final marathon dance number, but on the whole, this has aged far less well than MGM musicals that aren’t on this list, like Meet Me in St. Louis or The Band Wagon.
Wuthering Heights (73)
Dances with Wolves (75)
Evidence that the wrong director got the Oscar back in 1991.
Giant (82)
No one likes James Dean anymore?
Fargo (84)
Even one of the Coens’ best isn’t great enough for this list. Some other time, guys.
Mutiny on the Bounty (86)
Frankenstein (87)
It’s not alive!!!!!!!
Patton (89)
George C. Scott wouldn’t mind, but James Berardinelli is probably mad.
The Jazz Singer (90)
A great milestone, but by all accounts, not a great movie.
My Fair Lady (91)
The most overrated musical ever gets the boot it deserves. Creaky, bloated, and dull, with a miscast Audrey Hepburn.
A Place in the Sun (92)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (99)
Now that you’ve made it all the way to the end, leave some comments and tell me what you think of the new AFI list - or of my takes on it. Did your favorites make the list or not?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Lists
Monopoly the movie? Oh, the possibilities!
So Entertainment Weekly and various other outlets are reporting today that Ridley Scott may make a movie based on the board game Monopoly starring Scarlett Johansson or Kirsten Dunst.
(blinks)
(Checks calendar. Hmmm, OK. Not April 1. Ah, what the hey, I’ll roll with it.)
I gotta give credit to Hollywood for one thing: when they run out of ideas, they run out of ideas creatively. Ridley Scott’s Monopoly would certainly be a curio at the very least. Maybe Uncle Pennybags could be a replicant. I can just hear the dialogue now: “Are you not bankrupt???!!?? “
You could argue, however, that they picked the wrong director for the movie. Why not give it to Oliver Stone? He could write a whole new take on the “Greed is good. Greed works” speech from Wall Street.
It’s too bad John Ford is long gone. He would have been great for the bankruptcy scenes. “Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there…”
The possibilities boggle the mind. Clue has already been done, so let’s see what else is out there.
Chutes and Ladders by Michael Bay!
Candy Land by Tim Burton, as a quasi-sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Never mind that Glass Elevator thing!
Battleship by Wolfgang Petersen of Das Boot fame! Or maybe grab Peter Weir if you want something a bit more cerebral, like Master and Commander.
Mouse Trap by Terry Gilliam!
Risk by Paul Verhoeven!
If you want to stretch the genre a little and go beyond board games, why not Christopher Nolan for the card game Memory?
Who should make Operation? Robert Altman would have been the ideal choice, but since he’s no longer with us, I suggest David O. Russell, who already has experience shooting gross anatomy in Three Kings. Besides all that, he could scream at everyone on the set and give ‘em all coronaries.
Join in the fun! What board game movies would you like to see?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Coming Attractions
Home (Re) Viewing: Terabithia or bust
This week’s DVD highlight is without question, Bridge to Teribithia, one of the year’s most pleasant surprises.
The ads for Terabithia made it look like a Chronicles of Narnia knock-off, then Terabithia turned out to be much better than that movie. Terabithia is not about journeying to a mythical land, but about the fantasies kids create to escape the sometimes harrowing real world. (Tragedy does become a factor, so parents, be prepared for questions.) AnnaSophia Robb is particularly charming as the imaginative girl who envisions Terabithia. I wrote about it here, but for this space, suffice it to say it’s the best family film of the year - or at least it will be until June 29, when a certain movie about rats and French cooking comes out. (That’s a hint, folks.) GRADE: A-
We’re actually much more interesting than all this CGI.
Also out today
The Abandoned: That pretty well describes the reception this PG-13 horror thriller got. Seems the “horror lite” trend may be peaking. Heck, given the repulsed reception of Hostel: Part II, maybe “horror heavy” is peaking too.
Miss Potter: I didn’t get to see this film about the author of Peter Rabbit and other such cuddly books, but the pairing of Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor is reason enough to check it out. I thoroughly enjoyed them in the underrated romantic comedy Down with Love.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: On Video/DVD
Taking kids to violent/scary movies: sometimes OK?
Just reading the subject line made skin crawl for a lot of you, I bet. Many of us have sneered in disgust/gaped incredulously at some thoughtless dunderhead who takes a kid to see a violent/scary movie, resulting in therapy bills for at least three decades.
I’ve written about about this topic before, but two things I’ve read recently bring it back to mind - and made me give the issue second thoughts.
First is critic James Berardinelli’s treatise on using the movie theater as a day care center. He advocates that the R-rating should be changed: Not only would those 11-17 require a parent/adult guardian to see the movie, but those under 10 should never be admitted - even with an adult present.
Berardinelli also offers a great piece of advice to these errant parents or guardians: “If you’re desperate to see a title and are having babysitter problems, wait for the DVD. It’s only four months away.”
And yet …
There’s also Ty Burr’s book The Best Old Movies for Families, which is about trying to turn kids on to classic movies. It’s a great idea for a book, and a terrific read.
In his chapter on Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Burr offers further food for thought. He begins by railing against parents who bring children to violent movies, as so many of us would.
But then Burr relates an anecdote about his friend and co-worker Renee, whose mother took her to see the original Night of the Living Dead “when she was five - five!” The scene came along where a little zombie girl stabs her mother dead with a spade.
Burr writes, “Was Renee scared? Are you kidding? She freaked. Was she scarred for life? Renee laughs the laugh of the most sensible, even-keeled person I know and says, ‘Of course not. It was a movie. Even at five,’ she says, ‘I understood that, and I knew my mother liked the scary ones and that she liked to take me along.’”
Hmm. Interesting. So maybe we shouldn’t automatically assume that all parents who take their kids to violent movies should be arrested for child endangering. Still, it makes for an interesting argument.
I tend to think that just as some parents are thoughtless, some are also overprotective, trying to shield their little darlings from any harm, lest they cry and ruin their parents’ day. I sometimes think that parents believe because something scares them, it will scare their child also - and that isn’t necessarily so. Clearly, some kids like to be scared.
Where do you draw the line? Do you agree with Berardinelli? Did you go to see a scary movie at a young age - and live to tell about it?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Moviegoing
Fantastic Four sequel doesn’t quite catch a wave
Well, that was a close call. The Fantastic Four almost made a good movie this time.
Many critics trashed the first film, but I prefer to think of that one as persistently mediocre. Two characters worked - the Thing and the Human Torch- and three didn’t - Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, er, Woman and Dr. Doom. You do the math.
On top of all that, the movie had a director, Tim Story (Barbershop), who had never made a big budget picture before - and it showed, with action scenes that were as flat as day-old Coke.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is mostly mediocre, although it boasts some solid action scenes. Director Story certainly paces the new film better, as it breezes by in a relatively painless 90 minutes or so. Unfortunately, that’s not enough for me to recommend the sequel. What worked in the first movie works again - but what didn’t work in the first movie still doesn’t work now.
This time out, the cosmically enhanced quartet contend with a new threat: the Silver Surfer, which looks a lot like a T-1000 Terminator who’s learned to hang 10. Every planet he surfs to dies, so it’s up to the Four to stop him before Earth suffers the same fate. Alas, other villains loom on the horizon.
Once again, the Thing (Michael Chiklis) and the Human Torch (Chris Evans) have very good chemistry together, and it’s fun to watch their love-hate camaraderie. Chiklis, God bless him, actually remembers to act in his role, and Evans gives the Torch just the right amount of charismatic brashness.
On the other hand, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) go together too - like Styrofoam and cardboard. These two exude about as much magnetism as a package of bubble wrap, only they’re not nearly as much fun.
I think it’s supposed to be funny how Gruffudd delivers his impossibly technical dialogue without batting an eye, but he looks rather hapless doing it. As for Alba, some men may be satisfied with seeing her cavort around in spandex, but if that’s all the role needs, then any babe out of the pages of Maxim would have filled the bill. I prefer that my heroines look heroic rather than vacuous.
And the Surfer? As voiced by Laurence Fishburne, he’s an intriguing character, but it’s a major problem that most of his emotional scenes are played opposite Alba, who couldn’t emote convincingly if Meryl Streep were on the set. And I imagine comic book fans will be less than pleased with the visualization of the villain Galactus, who looks like a refugee from Disney’s The Black Hole with a digital makeover.
Even with these considerable problems, the movie does deliver the goods as far as the various battles and chases go. The initial pursuit with the Torch and the Surfer has some breathtaking shots, and it results in the Torch being able to trade powers with his comrades temporarily. This is good not only for a few laughs, but it makes for a genuinely exciting climax.
For some moviegoers, this will suffice. However, I prefer to see the action bolstered by characters worth caring about, and the Fantastic Four movies simply don’t have enough of them. Spider-Man 3, for all its mistakes, still had emotional impact, and I’d much rather see it again than this sequel.
To paraphrase the Beach Boys, I’ll quit surfin’ now, cos nobody’s learning how, not enough safari to see.
GRADE: C+
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Reviews
What movie brings your dad to mind?
(Note to Middletown-area readers: If you’re looking for the post about free movies at Sorg, scroll down or click here.)
Now that Father’s Day is almost at hand, that brings the movie The Color Purple to my mind.
The Color Purple? A female-centered movie? In which most of the men are ogres or dimwits? On Father’s Day?
Well, yeah, with my dad there’s a connection. I don’t know that it’s his favorite movie of all time, but it’s certainly up there - so much so, that a phrase from that film has entered our lexicon.
Remember the scene in the juke joint when Oprah Winfrey is about to knock the wind out of Rae Dawn Chong? Right before the big fight, the piano player, knowing what’s coming, quickly gathers his things and says “Time to go!”
Dad parrots those three words almost every weekend. It’s remarkable how widely it can be applied.
I gotta grab the pizza. Time to go!
Oh, crud, I just broke this expensive lamp. Time to go!
A tornado is headed straight for our house? Time to go!
Paris Hilton is off to jail? Time to go! (If only that could apply to her whole career.)
And that’s not the only reason The Color Purple stands out. When one of the characters shouts “Mama!” at the end, that’s dad’s cue to lose it. Never fails. He’s a sap like me. Or maybe I’m a sap like him.
Besides, my being so into movies is largely because of my dad. He was the one who brought home movies like Taxi Driver and 2001, and I started noticing what a director does. So whenever he gets on my case about devoting too much time to movies, I can always remind him who REALLY started it! ;)
Most of us have a particular movie that brings our dad to mind. What’s yours?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Ask the Audience
Movies at Middletown’s Sorg Opera House
As I reported in the Middletown Journal today, Middletown’s Sorg Opera House on 57 S. Main St. will be showing free movies Friday and Saturday via DVD projection.
Here’s a rundown of the lineup, with some of my reviews, if available. The film titles link to their Internet Movie Database entries.
Friday
11 a.m. — “Ice Age,” animated film
12:45 p.m. — “Nacho Libre,” comedy with Jack Black
2:30 p.m. — “Barnyard: The Original Party Animals,” animated film
4:15 p.m. — “Night at the Museum,” comedy with Ben Stiller
6 p.m. — “The Guardian,” Coast Guard drama with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher
8 p.m. — “Sleepy Hollow,” action/horror with Johnny Depp, directed by Tim Burton
My review: Underrated Burton film, with some truly thrilling (and occasionally gruesome) action scenes.
9:50 p.m. — “Final Destination 3,” horror film
11:30 p.m. — “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” 2003 remake
1:15 a.m. “See No Evil,” horror film
Saturday
11 a.m. — “Ice Age: The Meltdown” animated sequel
12:45 p.m. — “Night at the Museum,” comedy with Ben Stiller
2:30 p.m. — “Barnyard: The Original Party Animals,” animated film
4:15 p.m. —“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” stop-motion Halloween Christmas movie by Tim Burton
My review: A classic at Halloween, Christmas, or at any time.
6 p.m. — “Edward Scissorhands,” comedy-drama with Johnny Depp
My review: Gets my vote as Tim Burton’s best film.
8 p.m. — “Casualties of War,” Vietnam drama with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox; directed by Brian De Palma
My review: Underrated and wrenchingly powerful in places. Marred only by a misguided present-day bookend.
9:50 p.m. — “House of 1,000 Corpses,” horror film directed by Rob Zombie
11:30 p.m. — “Thirteen Ghosts,” horror film
1:15 a.m. — “Saw III,” horror film
Permalink | | Categories: Special Events
What movies do kids watch/subject you to most?
LucyB’s post over on our Adventures in Motherhood blog reminds me that with school out, one thing kids like to do at home is watch movies.
Well, maybe not movies, plural. Young-uns are notorious for wanting to watch a particular movie or show again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
By the time the kids wear out the VHS/DVD player, you have the darn thing memorized, whether you want to or not. In the hot days of summer, there are no five words more chilling than “Can I watch it again?”
Quite often the stuff kids choose to watch repeatedly is, um, interesting, to put it charitably. I don’t have any kids, but I do have three siblings that are 13, 17 and 20 years younger than me, and some of the stuff they watched is still burned into my brain.
I remember a cartoon about the monster truck Bigfoot where the lead driver named Hank said “Listen, miss whutever yer three names were. I care uh-bout three things: Bigfoot, ma team and freedom, and that uh-bout cuvers it!”
And then I recall that one of my brothers had a thing for The Quest AKA Frog Dreaming, a downright bizarre Australian movie with E.T.’s Henry Thomas, about a monster in a park, or … something. There was also BMX Bandits, which I remember mainly because it starred a very young Nicole Kidman, who was all of 16 at the time. And she was tall then too.
So what movies/TV shows/etc saturate the kids’ viewing time? Have you come to have a strange affection/revulsion for any of them? And what movies did you watch endlessly when you were younger?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Ask the Audience
Home (Re) Viewing: Ghost Rider burns and crashes
Let’s see … on this week’s video slate, we have the dumbest big-budget movie Marvel Comics ever made, and a pretty smart spy thriller with an Oscar quality performance. Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks, to be sure, but for me, the choice is a no-brainer - and it’s not the no-brainer movie!
Ghost Rider: I know comic book movies are supposed to be stupidly silly to an extent, but this one’s stupid quotient is off the charts. It comes out just three days shy of the release of the Fantastic Four sequel, and that’s interesting timing, because Ghost Rider makes the first Fantastic Four look like the first Spider-Man. AND the cycle-riding, skull-burning movie comes in an “extended cut,” just to drive the point home! Hoo-ya! Original, loopy review here. GRADE: D
Breach: This thriller about notorious traitor Robert Hannsen (Chris Cooper) and the FBI agent who brings him down (Ryan Phillippe) tends to be a bit dry at times, but benefits greatly from Cooper’s frightening and haunting performance. Between this and Shattered Glass, director Billy Ray has proven his skill - it’s only a matter of time until he knocks one out of the park. GRADE: B+
Also out today
Blood and Chocolate: Apparently so lame that even the horror crowd went “eh.” The talented Agnes Bruckner needs a better agent fast.
Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls: When Perry came out with his Madea movies, people wondered whether the selling point was Madea or Perry. I think this movie proved it was Madea.
The Verdict/The Hustler: Two of Paul Newman’s best performances come out on two-disc DVDs, making his recent announcement that he was retiring all the more bittersweet.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: On Video/DVD
Memphis, Vegas Indy and Paris: ‘Oceans 13,’ etc.
To paraphrase General MacArthur, I have returned … from Memphis, to bring you a little city-by-city “tour” of movie news/reviews from the past week.
Memphis/Vegas: While in Memphis, I caught Ocean’s 13, which is a significant improvement over its predecessor. To some people, that may not be saying much, but the gang and director Steven Soderbergh remembered to tell a story again rather than just having us witness the great time everyone had on the set. The movie’s a little too loosey-goosey in places because the writers strain too hard to include all of the Ocean crew, making some of the subplots fairly dull. Still, the addition of Al Pacino as the villain is a major plus, and it goes a long way toward restoring the shine on this series. GRADE: B+
PS: Note to the makers of Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3 - THIS is how you construct a Rubik’s Cube of a plot without bogging your movie down: Keep the action moving at a good clip without constantly throwing stuff at the screen and seeing what sticks. On balance, this is the best of the summer’s big-ticket threequels - which again, isn’t saying much.
PPS: Is it just me, or does Ellen Barkin look a lot like an older Cameron Diaz in this movie?
Barkin ^
Diaz
Indy: There can be no doubt that Sean Connery has more than earned the right to retire. Still, I was very disappointed to find out that he opted out of appearing in the fourth Indiana Jones movie, which is about to start filming. This means that his last movie will be The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Uccch. Ya sure ya don’t wanna go out on a better note, Sean?
Paris: Normally, I would refuse to talk about Paris Hilton. The less attention I or anyone in the media gives that brainless twit (redundant, I know), the better. Still, I couldn’t resist commenting on the headline for this story: Hilton says she will no longer “act dumb.”
(Tries to stifle laugh)
(Fails)
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHHH!
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEE!
Oh, I can’t stand it!
OHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!
(huff, puff)
Whew! Well, at least now I know partly why my brethren in the media follow her so incessantly. She’s sometimes good for a guffaw or two.
Comment on anything here if the spirit moves you. Also, tell me what you guys have seen lately. I’m hearing Surf’s Up actually is pretty clever. True?
(Note: If you see a Marty/Joe post just below this one, ignore it. We’re working out some bugs.)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Reviews
He’s leaving home, bye bye
I will make my annual sojourn to Memphis next week, so I will not post to the blog. In the meantime, I cannot recommend Waitress or Knocked Up highly enough.
Paul McCartney has a new album Memory Almost Full, coming out Tuesday. Why do I mention that here in a movie blog? Well, because the video for the lead single, “Dance Tonight,” was directed by Michel Gondry, who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of my favorite movies of the past few years. Keep an eye on the “ghosts” - one of them is Natalie Portman.
And while we’re on the subject of the Beatles, crank up Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in the U.S. Saturday. But for the benefit of Mr. Kite, PLEASE don’t watch that STUPID Bee Gees/Peter Frampton movie. It’s been known to rot brain tissue. (Well, except for Earth Wind and Fire singing “Got to Get You Into My Life.” That’s actually not bad.)
I’ll be back June 11. I’m sorry but it’s time to go…
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‘Knocked Up’ glows with comedy
Who would have guessed that two of the best movies of the year would be comedies about unwanted pregnancy?
Yesterday I wrote about Waitress with Keri Russell. Today, Knocked Up, from the makers of The 40 Year Old Virgin opens, and if anything, this hysterical and moving comedy is even better. It’s a knockout.
Writer-director Judd Apatow takes the basic idea of Virgin - irretrievably geeky guy lands incredibly attractive girl - and adds a very little something to the mix.
Alison (Katherine Heigl) is a beautiful up and comer who lands an on-camera gig at the cable network E! To celebrate, she has more than a few drinks at a club, where she meets Ben (Seth Rogen), a slacker whose idea of a great time is inhaling pot smoke through a gas mask.
Their drunken fog prompts a misunderstanding about the status of a condom, and about eight weeks later, the one-night stand extends. Alison decides to keep the baby and start a real relationship with Ben, even though the cold light of day reveals him to be less than a great catch. After all, would you want a guy who considers it his job to catalog nude scenes in movies like Wild Things?
Some people have found it hard to believe that someone who looks like Rogen would ever land someone like Heigl. Roger Moore, critic of the Orlando Sentinel, writes, “there isn’t enough alcohol in Anaheim to get Katherine Heigl drunk enough to have sex with Seth Rogen.”
It’s a funny line, but Moore disregards the fact that average Joes don’t always land plain Janes. American Idol alone provides two examples. Here’s Chris Sligh, a finalist from this season, and his wife:
And then theres last season’s runner-up, Katharine McPhee, and her boyfriend, Nick Cokas.
I rest my case.
What Moore didn’t buy that I absolutely bought, was that even before the alcohol takes over, Alison latches on to Ben’s sense of humor. When one of Ben’s buddies says that he’s had chicken pox several times, Ben casually cracks, “We don’t have the heart to tell him it’s herpes.”
And that’s what makes Knocked Up work so well: that mix of rude comedy and genuine emotion.
Apatow fills the movie with many ribald jokes, like an unforgettable sex scene that dares to pose the question, “Can the baby feel it?” Unlike a lot of writers, Apatow understands that crude comedy alone does not a good movie make. He perfectly balances the gags with a story that actually matters, particularly by contrasting Ben and Alison with a married couple (Virgin alums Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann), who are going through a rocky period.
Knocked Up runs a little more than two hours, which is unusually long for a comedy, but not a moment feels wasted. Even a scene toward the end, when Rogen and Rudd go on a drug-fueled bender, feels like more than a tribute to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas because it heightens the anxiety the men feel about their relationships.
I also loved the little details Apatow includes, like the poster of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that Ben has. I doubt it’s a coincidence that Ben has a poster from a movie about a guy who has his memory erased to forget a girl.
Audiences sometimes forget that even if a movie isn’t a visual extravaganza, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth going out to see. I strongly recommend catching Knocked Up in a theater full of people laughing, which can only add to the experience. I’d be willing to bet that the audience I was with had a better time at this movie than audiences at Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End combined.
Knocked Up also scored because it hit me where I live. As my posts about Star Wars indicate, I have more than a little freak and geek in me myself. I can’t help but love the fact that Apatow actually makes guys like us his heroes. Never has unwanted pregnancy seemed so hopeful.
GRADE: A+
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