#91 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
I saw this movie for the first time when I was a kid and I liked it. There are some really great songs in this musical and wonderful set pieces. But that's about it. The movie as a whole makes very little sense and has no real ending. It's not surprising that it didn't make it back on to the Top 100 list in 2007, because it really has not held up well over time. If you think you like this movie, I challenge you to go back and watch it again, then make a list of what was good and what was bad and see what you come up with. Because I thought I liked this movie, and then we watched it and it turns out, it was kind of terrible. So here is my list:
Good:
The scene at Ascot
Eliza's father and his friends (especially their first song)
The costumes, mostly
Bad:
The lip synch, especially in "Get Me To The Church on Time"
Rex Harrison sing-talks all his songs
Eliza's response to everything for the first half of the movie is "EEEEAAAAAOOOOOWWWW"
All of a sudden, at 3:00am, Eliza magically learns how to speak perfectly and never falters again
They skip a few months during the course of a conversation, between Ascot and the ball
Freddie apparently stalks Eliza by hanging out on her street all the time, and then at the end of the movie, he's probably still just waiting for her in the cab; what is up with that?
There is no problem to solve and no resolution of the plot; which means there isn't an ending
So there it is. We both put this at the bottom of our respectful lists and I have a feeling it's going to stay there.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
AFI # 92: Goodfellas (1990)
#92 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#94 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#2 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
What can I say about Goodfellas that you don't all already know. It's a fantastic movie. It has fantastic acting: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta. It has fantastic writing: "I'm funny how, like I'm a clown? I amuse you?" It has a fantastic soundtrack: Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Who.
It is completely entertaining from beginning to end. The only complaint I have is that the real-life Henry Hill was an asshole and this movie makes you kind of like him. But that's not a very big complaint.
Mike is also a fan of the soundtrack. And he likes the longshot through the kitchen.
But what else is there to say? We didn't really have any discussions beyond talking about how awesome it was... for example:
[Tommy shoots Billy Batts]
Me: He's crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Or:
[Instead of getting made, Tommy gets dead]
Me: That was crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think that Joe Pesci is the reason that this movie is so awesome. He did win an Oscar for this performance, and I think it was completely deserved. Because everytime I try to think of why this movie is awesome, it always comes back to Tommy... not Henry Hill. Although I must say that Ray Liotta is very good looking and this is probably his best ever role. But it's really all about Tommy, isn't it? Anyway, it's also a great performance from Robert DeNiro, although I think there are a couple better ones further up the list.
So, since this movie is so awesome, we both put it at #1 on our lists. Which makes it #1 overall. For the time being. I should mention that it is #1, not just for being ambiguously awesome, but for being a well directed, well acted movie with a fantastic soundtrack that happens to be wildly entertaining. So that's the standard...
#94 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#2 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
What can I say about Goodfellas that you don't all already know. It's a fantastic movie. It has fantastic acting: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta. It has fantastic writing: "I'm funny how, like I'm a clown? I amuse you?" It has a fantastic soundtrack: Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Who.
It is completely entertaining from beginning to end. The only complaint I have is that the real-life Henry Hill was an asshole and this movie makes you kind of like him. But that's not a very big complaint.
Mike is also a fan of the soundtrack. And he likes the longshot through the kitchen.
But what else is there to say? We didn't really have any discussions beyond talking about how awesome it was... for example:
[Tommy shoots Billy Batts]
Me: He's crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Or:
[Instead of getting made, Tommy gets dead]
Me: That was crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think that Joe Pesci is the reason that this movie is so awesome. He did win an Oscar for this performance, and I think it was completely deserved. Because everytime I try to think of why this movie is awesome, it always comes back to Tommy... not Henry Hill. Although I must say that Ray Liotta is very good looking and this is probably his best ever role. But it's really all about Tommy, isn't it? Anyway, it's also a great performance from Robert DeNiro, although I think there are a couple better ones further up the list.
So, since this movie is so awesome, we both put it at #1 on our lists. Which makes it #1 overall. For the time being. I should mention that it is #1, not just for being ambiguously awesome, but for being a well directed, well acted movie with a fantastic soundtrack that happens to be wildly entertaining. So that's the standard...
Monday, December 3, 2012
AFI # 92.5: A Place in the Sun (1951)
#92 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
I thought this movie was really boring. I have never seen anything with Montgomery Clift, I thought he was fantastic. Wasn't overly impressed with Elizabeth Taylor, I'm more looking forward to some of her other movies. I thought the trivia on IMDB was more interesting than the movie. And I definitely want to see more Montgomery Clift movies. But since I didn't love the movie, I will let Mike tell you what he thought...
Me: Mike, what did you think of A Place in the Sun?
Mike: Which one was that?
Me: Where he maybe killed his girlfriend. In the boat.
Mike: Right. Pleasantly surprising direction. Impressed with whatshername... Elizabeth Taylor [heh]. She was better than I expected. I liked the boat parallels to Godfather 2, twenty years later [what a guy thing to say].
Me: Anything else.
Mike: No.
Also, Mike looked up Montgomery Clift and regrets it. Apparently his life was incredibly sad, so Mike has decided he does not want to see any more Montgomery Clift movies. Mike is now telling me about Montgomery Clift's life... and it is really depressing. But I still want to see more Montgomery Clift movies.
Anyway, the current rankings, if you care to see them. First, the overall, then the individuals...
I thought this movie was really boring. I have never seen anything with Montgomery Clift, I thought he was fantastic. Wasn't overly impressed with Elizabeth Taylor, I'm more looking forward to some of her other movies. I thought the trivia on IMDB was more interesting than the movie. And I definitely want to see more Montgomery Clift movies. But since I didn't love the movie, I will let Mike tell you what he thought...
Me: Mike, what did you think of A Place in the Sun?
Mike: Which one was that?
Me: Where he maybe killed his girlfriend. In the boat.
Mike: Right. Pleasantly surprising direction. Impressed with whatshername... Elizabeth Taylor [heh]. She was better than I expected. I liked the boat parallels to Godfather 2, twenty years later [what a guy thing to say].
Me: Anything else.
Mike: No.
Also, Mike looked up Montgomery Clift and regrets it. Apparently his life was incredibly sad, so Mike has decided he does not want to see any more Montgomery Clift movies. Mike is now telling me about Montgomery Clift's life... and it is really depressing. But I still want to see more Montgomery Clift movies.
Anyway, the current rankings, if you care to see them. First, the overall, then the individuals...
| 1. Do the Right Thing | |
| 2. Pulp Fiction | |
| 3. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | |
| 4. Blade Runner | |
| 5. The Last Picture Show | |
| 6. The French Connection | |
| 7. A Place in the Sun | |
| 8. Toy Story | |
| 9. Yankee Doodle Dandy | |
| 10. Ben-Hur |
| Mike | Sara | |||
| 1 | Do the Right Thing | 1 | Pulp Fiction | |
| 2 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | 2 | Do the Right Thing | |
| 3 | Pulp Fiction | 3 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | |
| 4 | Blade Runner | 4 | The Last Picture Show | |
| 5 | A Place in the Sun | 5 | Blade Runner | |
| 6 | The French Connection | 6 | The French Connection | |
| 7 | The Last Picture Show | 7 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | |
| 8 | Toy Story | 8 | A Place in the Sun | |
| 9 | Ben-Hur | 9 | Toy Story | |
| 10 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | 10 | Ben-Hur |
Sunday, November 11, 2012
AFI #93: The French Connection (1971)
#93 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#70 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
So... The French Connection. It's not a movie that I would have chosen to watch, which, as I think I've said before, is part of why we are watching the AFI list... but having watched it, I can't say that I would choose to watch it again. It's not that it was a bad movie, because it's not bad... it's just that I don't know that it really stands the test of time. I think the first clue of that is that in 1998, this was #70, and ten years later, it had fallen to #93. I'm interested to see what happens when they do another version of this list a few years from now.
What about The French Connection seems so dated? The music, mostly. But the other thing that makes it so dated, is exactly the reason that it is so important. And that is because it created the gritty cop drama. Which is now on television 7 days a week. There were many moments in the film that felt like a Law and Order episode, especially the end, where they tell you what happened to all the characters. It also occasionally felt like other procedurals or buddy cop movies. But this was really one of the first. And it won some major awards, and probably deserved them. But now, after seeing this same thing so many times, and often done better (since techniques have certainly improved since 1971), it just wasn't that interesting. And that's kind of all we talked about while watching this movie... Except for this:
[Credits are rolling at the beginning of the film]
Mike: Hey, Roy Scheider. This must be his other film.
Me: You mean besides All That Jazz?
Mike: Oh... no. I meant besides Jaws.
Me: I'm sure that there are many more.
Mike: I'm going to check IMDB....
[Watching the movie]
Mike: 92.
Me: 92 what?
Mike: That's how many things Roy Scheider was in.
So, not that exciting. But it's all I've got. This movie just wasn't that thought-provoking or exciting to us. I will add that it was apparently based on a true story. We each put it below Blade Runner on our lists, leading to a discussion of the similarities between this movie and Blade Runner. But, ultimately, Blade Runner is a more interesting movie. Man, I hope the next movie is more interesting...
#70 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
So... The French Connection. It's not a movie that I would have chosen to watch, which, as I think I've said before, is part of why we are watching the AFI list... but having watched it, I can't say that I would choose to watch it again. It's not that it was a bad movie, because it's not bad... it's just that I don't know that it really stands the test of time. I think the first clue of that is that in 1998, this was #70, and ten years later, it had fallen to #93. I'm interested to see what happens when they do another version of this list a few years from now.
What about The French Connection seems so dated? The music, mostly. But the other thing that makes it so dated, is exactly the reason that it is so important. And that is because it created the gritty cop drama. Which is now on television 7 days a week. There were many moments in the film that felt like a Law and Order episode, especially the end, where they tell you what happened to all the characters. It also occasionally felt like other procedurals or buddy cop movies. But this was really one of the first. And it won some major awards, and probably deserved them. But now, after seeing this same thing so many times, and often done better (since techniques have certainly improved since 1971), it just wasn't that interesting. And that's kind of all we talked about while watching this movie... Except for this:
[Credits are rolling at the beginning of the film]
Mike: Hey, Roy Scheider. This must be his other film.
Me: You mean besides All That Jazz?
Mike: Oh... no. I meant besides Jaws.
Me: I'm sure that there are many more.
Mike: I'm going to check IMDB....
[Watching the movie]
Mike: 92.
Me: 92 what?
Mike: That's how many things Roy Scheider was in.
So, not that exciting. But it's all I've got. This movie just wasn't that thought-provoking or exciting to us. I will add that it was apparently based on a true story. We each put it below Blade Runner on our lists, leading to a discussion of the similarities between this movie and Blade Runner. But, ultimately, Blade Runner is a more interesting movie. Man, I hope the next movie is more interesting...
Monday, October 29, 2012
AFI # 94: Pulp Fiction (1994)
#94 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#95 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#7 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
There's a hurricane outside and we are home from work, so we figured it was a good enough time to watch the next movie on the list. Which is Pulp Fiction. This is the first movie on the list that both of us had seen before, which shouldn't be too surprising. We were definitely looking forward to watching it again, since neither of us had seen it in quite some time. Which means we had forgotten a number of things about the movie. When I think of Pulp Fiction, I think of the Royale with Cheese conversation, and the robbery at the diner. But it's been a long time and I had definitely forgotten many things. So, here are the things we (mostly I) had forgotten about Pulp Fiction.
1. This is a really long movie.
We got the netflix envelope and opened it up. "Great, it's Pulp Fiction... oh my God, did you realize that this is a two and a half hour movie? Wow."
2. The $5 milkshake.
When Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace to Jackrabbit Slim's (the restaurant where the waitstaff dress like Marilyn Monroe, etc. and they have the twist contest), Mia orders a milkshake. More specifically, a $5 milkshake. They then proceed to have this whole conversation about the milkshake and how Vincent Vega can't believe she ordered such an expensive milkshake. Now, I'm assuming that my reaction is because twenty years have passed since this movie was made, but I just didn't think $5 sounded like it was that much for a milkshake. For the record, I also had forgotten that Steve Buscemi played the waiter dressed as Buddy Holly.
3. Eric Stoltz is in this movie.
I had forgotten about a lot of people in this movie, like Amanda Plummer and Rosanna Arquette. I definitely forgot about Eric Stoltz as Lance, the heroin dealer who explains how to stab Mia with the needle after she ODs.
4. The watch up the ass.
How do you forget Christopher Walken talking about having a watch up his ass? I didn't really forget about it, I just forgot that it was in this particular movie.
5. The briefcase.
What is in the briefcase? There are so many answers to this question and it spawned so many pseudo-philosophical questions when I was in high school and then in college. A lot of people think it was Marcellus Wallace's soul, and there are lots of reasons for that. Some people think it's the loot from Reservoir Dogs. For the record, Quentin Tarantino has said that there is no actual official explanation, that it was written in so that people would come to their own conclusions. However, I have to share that when we started watching the movie today, I asked Mike, what do you think is in the briefcase and he said "Keyser Soze's files from the Usual Suspects". HA!
6. Marcellus Wallace is going to get "medieval on your ass".
I forgot about that line. I did not forget about bringing out the gimp or the wonderful scene where Bruce Willis keeps picking up larger, more dangerous weapons. But I forgot about how Marcellus is going to get medieval on Zed's ass. And I remember how people would often spell it "midevil", as though he was going to do something in the middle range of evil things...
Overall, we enjoyed it a great deal. We had a lot of difficulty figuring out where to put this on our list. So we had to come up with a new method, whereby we each keep a separate list and then average it out. So the combined list will still appear on the side, but I am going to put each individual list here in the post. And here they are:
#95 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#7 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
There's a hurricane outside and we are home from work, so we figured it was a good enough time to watch the next movie on the list. Which is Pulp Fiction. This is the first movie on the list that both of us had seen before, which shouldn't be too surprising. We were definitely looking forward to watching it again, since neither of us had seen it in quite some time. Which means we had forgotten a number of things about the movie. When I think of Pulp Fiction, I think of the Royale with Cheese conversation, and the robbery at the diner. But it's been a long time and I had definitely forgotten many things. So, here are the things we (mostly I) had forgotten about Pulp Fiction.
1. This is a really long movie.
We got the netflix envelope and opened it up. "Great, it's Pulp Fiction... oh my God, did you realize that this is a two and a half hour movie? Wow."
2. The $5 milkshake.
When Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace to Jackrabbit Slim's (the restaurant where the waitstaff dress like Marilyn Monroe, etc. and they have the twist contest), Mia orders a milkshake. More specifically, a $5 milkshake. They then proceed to have this whole conversation about the milkshake and how Vincent Vega can't believe she ordered such an expensive milkshake. Now, I'm assuming that my reaction is because twenty years have passed since this movie was made, but I just didn't think $5 sounded like it was that much for a milkshake. For the record, I also had forgotten that Steve Buscemi played the waiter dressed as Buddy Holly.
3. Eric Stoltz is in this movie.
I had forgotten about a lot of people in this movie, like Amanda Plummer and Rosanna Arquette. I definitely forgot about Eric Stoltz as Lance, the heroin dealer who explains how to stab Mia with the needle after she ODs.
4. The watch up the ass.
How do you forget Christopher Walken talking about having a watch up his ass? I didn't really forget about it, I just forgot that it was in this particular movie.
5. The briefcase.
What is in the briefcase? There are so many answers to this question and it spawned so many pseudo-philosophical questions when I was in high school and then in college. A lot of people think it was Marcellus Wallace's soul, and there are lots of reasons for that. Some people think it's the loot from Reservoir Dogs. For the record, Quentin Tarantino has said that there is no actual official explanation, that it was written in so that people would come to their own conclusions. However, I have to share that when we started watching the movie today, I asked Mike, what do you think is in the briefcase and he said "Keyser Soze's files from the Usual Suspects". HA!
6. Marcellus Wallace is going to get "medieval on your ass".
I forgot about that line. I did not forget about bringing out the gimp or the wonderful scene where Bruce Willis keeps picking up larger, more dangerous weapons. But I forgot about how Marcellus is going to get medieval on Zed's ass. And I remember how people would often spell it "midevil", as though he was going to do something in the middle range of evil things...
Overall, we enjoyed it a great deal. We had a lot of difficulty figuring out where to put this on our list. So we had to come up with a new method, whereby we each keep a separate list and then average it out. So the combined list will still appear on the side, but I am going to put each individual list here in the post. And here they are:
| Mike | Sara | |||
| 1 | Do the Right Thing | 1 | Pulp Fiction | |
| 2 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | 2 | Do the Right Thing | |
| 3 | Pulp Fiction | 3 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | |
| 4 | Blade Runner | 4 | The Last Picture Show | |
| 5 | The Last Picture Show | 5 | Blade Runner | |
| 6 | Toy Story | 6 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | |
| 7 | Ben-Hur | 7 | Toy Story | |
| 8 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | 8 | Ben-Hur |
Sunday, October 21, 2012
AFI #95: The Last Picture Show (1971)
#95 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
So, first I will say, we took a bit of a break there in between movies. Which is inevitable this time of year with all the fall TV starting and catching up on our TV on DVD. Plus this is an election year, and I am an active member of my political party, which means even less time for movie watching. So, we finally got through our backlog of TV shows and the election is almost here, so I only have a few days of campaign volunteering left, which means it's time to get back to our list. But let's not pretend that we are going to get through these movies quickly. I'll be happy if we can get through all 100+ movies by the end of 2017. By which point, there will probably be a new list to add in, and we will have to add some movies to the list. This is not a short term project...
But, enough babble, let's talk about the movie at hand. When we saw this movie on the list, neither of us had any idea what it was, since it was made before we were both born. If I had to guess, I would maybe have said it was probably about Hollywood or the entertainment industry. I also had never heard of the book it is based on, by Larry McMurtry. Which shouldn't surprise anyone since, even though I'm pretty well read, I don't like westerns and my primary experience with Larry McMurtry is Lonesome Dove. This particular story is not a western, though. It is instead a story about a small Texas town during the 1950s. It was shot entirely in black and white, apparently on the advice of Orson Welles (fascinating, right!). And it involves a surprising amount of full frontal nudity. But there's a reason for that. The movie industry had recently decided to abandon the Hayes Code and move to a ratings system (which we still have). Which meant that there was a lot of nudity going on in the movies around that time.
This is also the movie that launched the careers of Cybill Shepherd and Randy Quaid. It also resulted in acting Oscars for Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman and a bunch of other Oscar nominations. So, cleary, the film industry loved this movie. Did we love this movie? Not really. We didn't hate it either. But I just wonder if it has really stood the test of time. I didn't really identify with any of the characters and I thought that the plot was sort of boring. But the movie was watchable and the acting was good. So, other than the nudity and the Wow! look how young Jeff Bridges is! moments, it was just kind of okay. So, we decided to place this at the current #4 on our list, which currently looks like this:
1. Do The Right Thing (1989)
2. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
3. Blade Runner (1982)
4. The Last Picture Show (1971)
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
6. Toy Story (1995)
7. Ben-Hur (1959)
So, first I will say, we took a bit of a break there in between movies. Which is inevitable this time of year with all the fall TV starting and catching up on our TV on DVD. Plus this is an election year, and I am an active member of my political party, which means even less time for movie watching. So, we finally got through our backlog of TV shows and the election is almost here, so I only have a few days of campaign volunteering left, which means it's time to get back to our list. But let's not pretend that we are going to get through these movies quickly. I'll be happy if we can get through all 100+ movies by the end of 2017. By which point, there will probably be a new list to add in, and we will have to add some movies to the list. This is not a short term project...
But, enough babble, let's talk about the movie at hand. When we saw this movie on the list, neither of us had any idea what it was, since it was made before we were both born. If I had to guess, I would maybe have said it was probably about Hollywood or the entertainment industry. I also had never heard of the book it is based on, by Larry McMurtry. Which shouldn't surprise anyone since, even though I'm pretty well read, I don't like westerns and my primary experience with Larry McMurtry is Lonesome Dove. This particular story is not a western, though. It is instead a story about a small Texas town during the 1950s. It was shot entirely in black and white, apparently on the advice of Orson Welles (fascinating, right!). And it involves a surprising amount of full frontal nudity. But there's a reason for that. The movie industry had recently decided to abandon the Hayes Code and move to a ratings system (which we still have). Which meant that there was a lot of nudity going on in the movies around that time.
This is also the movie that launched the careers of Cybill Shepherd and Randy Quaid. It also resulted in acting Oscars for Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman and a bunch of other Oscar nominations. So, cleary, the film industry loved this movie. Did we love this movie? Not really. We didn't hate it either. But I just wonder if it has really stood the test of time. I didn't really identify with any of the characters and I thought that the plot was sort of boring. But the movie was watchable and the acting was good. So, other than the nudity and the Wow! look how young Jeff Bridges is! moments, it was just kind of okay. So, we decided to place this at the current #4 on our list, which currently looks like this:
1. Do The Right Thing (1989)
2. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
3. Blade Runner (1982)
4. The Last Picture Show (1971)
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
6. Toy Story (1995)
7. Ben-Hur (1959)
Sunday, August 26, 2012
AFI #96: Do The Right Thing (1989)
#96 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
This movie came out when I was 11 and Mike was 9. Therefore, we had each seen various portions of the movie, but couldn't actually remember the whole thing. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, because I often find Spike Lee movies boring (except Inside Man, which was awesome). Mike was looking forward to it, because he likes Spike Lee more than I do. We were both pleasantly surprised. This was a great movie. I'm sure that is why it is on the list, but it was really a lot better than I thought it was.
If you don't know, Do The Right Thing is about a really hot day in Bed-Stuy, focusing on racial tensions. What did I love about it? Mostly that it wasn't trying to talk about a solution or about how things should be, but instead was just showing things as they are (or at least how they were in 1989). What makes this movie great is that it throws it in your face. Here's some racism. It's ugly and uncomfortable racism. The movie doesn't try to tell us that it's wrong, it relies on our ability to understand that calling people these words and acting this way is wrong. It doesn't tell us what we should do, it relies on us to know what we should do. I guess I just like that it isn't trying to preach, it's trying to illuminate. That's what makes it successful. Are things better today? I have no idea. I'm sure that there are plenty of people that would say they are not, and they may not be. We certainly still have racism in the U.S., and with all the mass shootings lately, we have plenty of violence to go with it. Which means that this movie is still very relevant, even though it's over 20 years old.
I would also like to point out that when we saw "a Spike Lee joint" come up on the screen, we both went "wow, this was before people knew who Spike Lee was." Which is an interesting conversation on its own, and thinking about the 80s and what we didn't know then is always fun. I will also say that there is a conversation in the film about whether Dwight Gooden or Roger Clemens is better, which I found enjoyable, considering we have the benefit of knowing what happened for each ballplayer since the movie was released. Also, there is a lot of Public Enemy going on here. When is the last time you heard Public Enemy?
And speaking of it being over 20 years old and things that have changed, this movie had some young actors, before their careers took off. It has Samuel L. Jackson (as Sam Jackson), it was Martin Lawrence's first movie, it introduced Rosie Perez. There's John Savage (who I love), Danny Aeillo, and Giancarlo Esposito. Our favorite performance was certainly John Turturro. I think we can all agree that he's one of the top 5 character actors out there, and his performance in this movie is brilliant, especially when you look at which scenes were improvised. Now we need to watch some more movies with John Turturro. This movie is a great example of why we are watching the movies on this list. Because this is not something we would have chosen on our own, but we enjoyed it immensely and it was definitely worth seeing. For now, it will be taking over the top spot on our list.
This movie came out when I was 11 and Mike was 9. Therefore, we had each seen various portions of the movie, but couldn't actually remember the whole thing. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, because I often find Spike Lee movies boring (except Inside Man, which was awesome). Mike was looking forward to it, because he likes Spike Lee more than I do. We were both pleasantly surprised. This was a great movie. I'm sure that is why it is on the list, but it was really a lot better than I thought it was.
If you don't know, Do The Right Thing is about a really hot day in Bed-Stuy, focusing on racial tensions. What did I love about it? Mostly that it wasn't trying to talk about a solution or about how things should be, but instead was just showing things as they are (or at least how they were in 1989). What makes this movie great is that it throws it in your face. Here's some racism. It's ugly and uncomfortable racism. The movie doesn't try to tell us that it's wrong, it relies on our ability to understand that calling people these words and acting this way is wrong. It doesn't tell us what we should do, it relies on us to know what we should do. I guess I just like that it isn't trying to preach, it's trying to illuminate. That's what makes it successful. Are things better today? I have no idea. I'm sure that there are plenty of people that would say they are not, and they may not be. We certainly still have racism in the U.S., and with all the mass shootings lately, we have plenty of violence to go with it. Which means that this movie is still very relevant, even though it's over 20 years old.
I would also like to point out that when we saw "a Spike Lee joint" come up on the screen, we both went "wow, this was before people knew who Spike Lee was." Which is an interesting conversation on its own, and thinking about the 80s and what we didn't know then is always fun. I will also say that there is a conversation in the film about whether Dwight Gooden or Roger Clemens is better, which I found enjoyable, considering we have the benefit of knowing what happened for each ballplayer since the movie was released. Also, there is a lot of Public Enemy going on here. When is the last time you heard Public Enemy?
And speaking of it being over 20 years old and things that have changed, this movie had some young actors, before their careers took off. It has Samuel L. Jackson (as Sam Jackson), it was Martin Lawrence's first movie, it introduced Rosie Perez. There's John Savage (who I love), Danny Aeillo, and Giancarlo Esposito. Our favorite performance was certainly John Turturro. I think we can all agree that he's one of the top 5 character actors out there, and his performance in this movie is brilliant, especially when you look at which scenes were improvised. Now we need to watch some more movies with John Turturro. This movie is a great example of why we are watching the movies on this list. Because this is not something we would have chosen on our own, but we enjoyed it immensely and it was definitely worth seeing. For now, it will be taking over the top spot on our list.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
AFI #97: Blade Runner (1982)
#97 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#6 on AFI's Top 10 Science Fiction Films
Can you believe that neither of us had ever seen this movie? I know that we seem like we've seen a lot of cult scifi movies from the 80s, and we have, but for whatever reason, this is not one of them. And now, having seen it, I can't say that's such a bad thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the movie. But I also didn't love it enough to want to watch it over and over again the way I would with, say, Highlander. So, let's talk about watching the movie (and a good example of why we like watching movies together, but why a lot of you who don't like people talking would hate watching a movie with us).
[Opening credits roll. Stage is set in Los Angeles, 2019.]
Me: Wow, that is only seven years from now. So, we should have already created replicants by now... I guess, it's not going to happen then.
Mike: I bet Apple creates the cybernetic organisms that kill us all. Apple is Skynet.
Me: So true.
[Conversation ensues about how awesome Terminator 3 was for finally just letting judgment day happen instead of pushing it back again. Harrison Ford's voiceover starts, distracting us from our unrelated conversation.]
Me: Is one of the complaints about this movie about that voiceover? It's terrible.
Mike: [looks at IMDB on his phone] Dustin Hoffman was originally supposed to play Deckard.
Me: Really? Weird.
Mike: Apparently he didn't get the macho character.
Me: I am enjoying this vision of the future where the Japanese have taken over.
Mike: Yeah, we did used to think that.
Me: But it didn't actually happen. I was reading an article the other day about a Japanese company asking its employees to work in English so that they could compete in a global marketplace and how many Japanese people think that English is too hard. It's interesting that they think our language is hard and we think theirs is hard. They're just really different. Oh, weird. [attention goes back to the movie where we see the creepy owls for the first time]
[Continues for next two hours]
So, now that we have enjoyed our little taste of movie watching in our house, let's just say that we enjoyed Blade Runner, but mostly we enjoyed talking about science in fiction in general while watching Blade Runner. We liked the film noir aspects of the movie and Rutger Hauer was pretty awesome. Especially at the end when he was running around in his underwear making strange noises. The voiceover was pretty bad, but it made it more noir. Harrison Ford seemed really stiff to me, but I can see it if we are supposed to wonder whether he is a replicant. I didn't care for the ending, but I will add, because Mike was so proud of this, that he totally recognized the shots at the end as being the same as the Shining. As soon as he said it, he went to IMDB, and sure enough, the ending title sequence had unused shots from the Shining.
Would I watch Blade Runner again? Sure. If it were on Saturday afternoon TV, I would certainly leave it on. Would I rent it again? Probably not. Here's the thing... we didn't see this movie in the 80s, so we don't have any nostalgia related to it. And it's vision of the future was interesting, but obviously not correct, and it is so close, that it just really seems very make believe. This is why Star Trek is so far in the future. And why Star Wars is in the past. So that people can't say, wait, that should have happened by now. I think the only reason Terminator was successful with their dates being closer is that they kept pushing Judgment Day back and didn't have it actually happen until the third movie, when we were all comfortable with the world in the movies. They also didn't have everyone speaking some weird mix of English/Japanese/Spanish in a wasteland Los Angeles later this decade. Of course, it was 35-40 years in the future when they were making it, but that's why some SciFi movies just don't stand the test of time. I would posit that this movie does not stand the test of time. But it was fun, I can see why people like it so much, I'm sure that I would have if I had seen it in the 80s. We have put it into the #2 spot for now, just below Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
#6 on AFI's Top 10 Science Fiction Films
Can you believe that neither of us had ever seen this movie? I know that we seem like we've seen a lot of cult scifi movies from the 80s, and we have, but for whatever reason, this is not one of them. And now, having seen it, I can't say that's such a bad thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the movie. But I also didn't love it enough to want to watch it over and over again the way I would with, say, Highlander. So, let's talk about watching the movie (and a good example of why we like watching movies together, but why a lot of you who don't like people talking would hate watching a movie with us).
[Opening credits roll. Stage is set in Los Angeles, 2019.]
Me: Wow, that is only seven years from now. So, we should have already created replicants by now... I guess, it's not going to happen then.
Mike: I bet Apple creates the cybernetic organisms that kill us all. Apple is Skynet.
Me: So true.
[Conversation ensues about how awesome Terminator 3 was for finally just letting judgment day happen instead of pushing it back again. Harrison Ford's voiceover starts, distracting us from our unrelated conversation.]
Me: Is one of the complaints about this movie about that voiceover? It's terrible.
Mike: [looks at IMDB on his phone] Dustin Hoffman was originally supposed to play Deckard.
Me: Really? Weird.
Mike: Apparently he didn't get the macho character.
Me: I am enjoying this vision of the future where the Japanese have taken over.
Mike: Yeah, we did used to think that.
Me: But it didn't actually happen. I was reading an article the other day about a Japanese company asking its employees to work in English so that they could compete in a global marketplace and how many Japanese people think that English is too hard. It's interesting that they think our language is hard and we think theirs is hard. They're just really different. Oh, weird. [attention goes back to the movie where we see the creepy owls for the first time]
[Continues for next two hours]
So, now that we have enjoyed our little taste of movie watching in our house, let's just say that we enjoyed Blade Runner, but mostly we enjoyed talking about science in fiction in general while watching Blade Runner. We liked the film noir aspects of the movie and Rutger Hauer was pretty awesome. Especially at the end when he was running around in his underwear making strange noises. The voiceover was pretty bad, but it made it more noir. Harrison Ford seemed really stiff to me, but I can see it if we are supposed to wonder whether he is a replicant. I didn't care for the ending, but I will add, because Mike was so proud of this, that he totally recognized the shots at the end as being the same as the Shining. As soon as he said it, he went to IMDB, and sure enough, the ending title sequence had unused shots from the Shining.
Would I watch Blade Runner again? Sure. If it were on Saturday afternoon TV, I would certainly leave it on. Would I rent it again? Probably not. Here's the thing... we didn't see this movie in the 80s, so we don't have any nostalgia related to it. And it's vision of the future was interesting, but obviously not correct, and it is so close, that it just really seems very make believe. This is why Star Trek is so far in the future. And why Star Wars is in the past. So that people can't say, wait, that should have happened by now. I think the only reason Terminator was successful with their dates being closer is that they kept pushing Judgment Day back and didn't have it actually happen until the third movie, when we were all comfortable with the world in the movies. They also didn't have everyone speaking some weird mix of English/Japanese/Spanish in a wasteland Los Angeles later this decade. Of course, it was 35-40 years in the future when they were making it, but that's why some SciFi movies just don't stand the test of time. I would posit that this movie does not stand the test of time. But it was fun, I can see why people like it so much, I'm sure that I would have if I had seen it in the 80s. We have put it into the #2 spot for now, just below Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
AFI #98: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
#98 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#100 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
We didn't know much about this movie before we watched it. Turns out it is a musical biopic about the life of George M. Cohan. I have heard his songs, but I can't say that I knew a whole lot about George M. Cohan. Here is his wikipedia page. The movie made a few changes to his life, most notably, cutting out his first wife and all four of his children. Instead, it focused on him and his patriotic achievements, especially his congressional medal of honor.
Did we enjoy it? Well, I enjoyed it. I love old movie musicals and these are some of the greatest songs ever written. Of course, I didn't love some of the singing, because the talk-singing style that was popular at that time has always kind of annoyed me. But it was fun. I especially enjoyed the "Give My Regards to Broadway" scene, which was from Little Johnny Jones. And also the song "Off the Record" from I'd Rather Be Right, which is a musical about FDR. I had never heard of that musical, but how exciting is that? There is a musical where FDR is a singing, dancing president. Of course, it's a Rogers and Hart musical, and those can be pretty bad. But it looks fun.
Mike, didn't enjoy the movie as much as I did. He thought it was okay, and he agreed with where we should put it on our overall list; above Ben Hur and Toy Story, but below Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. I imagine that most of the coming movies will go above this one, though. And speaking of rankings, I have no idea how the AFI people ranked all of these movies. How do you compare a movie musical from 1942 against an animated movie from 1995? And there will be mysteries and comedies and dramas and tearjerkers and thrillers and epics. How exactly is this going to work? Not only that, but we are ranking them together, so we have to agree on where everything goes. I think we're just trying to put it in order based on how enjoyable each movie is and whether we would want to watch it again. But I guarantee you that somewhere along the way we are going to come up against some movie that we can't agree on where to put it... and then we'll probably have to average it or something. Anyway, if you like old movie musicals and you've never seen this movie, check it out!
#100 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
We didn't know much about this movie before we watched it. Turns out it is a musical biopic about the life of George M. Cohan. I have heard his songs, but I can't say that I knew a whole lot about George M. Cohan. Here is his wikipedia page. The movie made a few changes to his life, most notably, cutting out his first wife and all four of his children. Instead, it focused on him and his patriotic achievements, especially his congressional medal of honor.
Did we enjoy it? Well, I enjoyed it. I love old movie musicals and these are some of the greatest songs ever written. Of course, I didn't love some of the singing, because the talk-singing style that was popular at that time has always kind of annoyed me. But it was fun. I especially enjoyed the "Give My Regards to Broadway" scene, which was from Little Johnny Jones. And also the song "Off the Record" from I'd Rather Be Right, which is a musical about FDR. I had never heard of that musical, but how exciting is that? There is a musical where FDR is a singing, dancing president. Of course, it's a Rogers and Hart musical, and those can be pretty bad. But it looks fun.
Mike, didn't enjoy the movie as much as I did. He thought it was okay, and he agreed with where we should put it on our overall list; above Ben Hur and Toy Story, but below Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. I imagine that most of the coming movies will go above this one, though. And speaking of rankings, I have no idea how the AFI people ranked all of these movies. How do you compare a movie musical from 1942 against an animated movie from 1995? And there will be mysteries and comedies and dramas and tearjerkers and thrillers and epics. How exactly is this going to work? Not only that, but we are ranking them together, so we have to agree on where everything goes. I think we're just trying to put it in order based on how enjoyable each movie is and whether we would want to watch it again. But I guarantee you that somewhere along the way we are going to come up against some movie that we can't agree on where to put it... and then we'll probably have to average it or something. Anyway, if you like old movie musicals and you've never seen this movie, check it out!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
If you haven't seen this movie yet, don't read this post. I'm going to assume that if you are reading this post, you have seen the movie and that I won't be spoiling it for you.
I have to say that this movie was not nearly as good as the second movie, which is not in any way surprising. However, it is certainly much better than many third installments to trilogies and it is in no way a bad movie. My main issues with this movie were the pacing and the predictability. The beginning of the movie, especially, seemed to move very slow. But it was interesting in that it felt like it was paced the way a comic book would be paced, which is kind of neat. And the plot was incredibly predictable. That didn't necessarily make it less satisfying as an end to the trilogy, but it made it a little less interesting. The plot of this movie really went back to Batman Begins, and I had the exact same problems with that movie.
Here's the problem. Ra's Al Ghul has always been my favorite Batman villain. So when I watched Batman Begins I knew immediately that Liam Neeson was Ra's Al Ghul, which apparently was supposed to be a surprise. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who knew it, but I think that the other people who knew were similarly non-plussed by the "reveal" toward the end of the movie. However, knowing that he was Ra's Al Ghul throughout the movie didn't make it any less enjoyable. Then, of course, The Dark Knight happened and Heath Ledger changed comic book villains as we know them. How can you possibly top that? You can't. Plus, Christopher Nolan chose not to even mention the Joker in this film, a decision which I can completely respect.
And then we get to this final movie. Now, one of my favorite storylines with Ra's Al Ghul (and, one of the best ever episodes of Batman the Animated Series, if you watched that) is that Bruce Wayne/Batman falls in love with Talia Al Ghul. Well, this movie starts talking about the League of Shadows and Ra's Al Ghul and here's Bruce Wayne sleeping with some woman. I mean, of course she's Talia Al Ghul. How can you not see that? It was just so predictable, and I was really frustrated with Bruce Wayne's gullibility on that. It didn't ruin the movie for me or anything, but I just wish there had been a slightly better villain. Talia Al Ghul + Bane are clearly not as interesting as Joker/Two-Face, but they're not even as interesting as Ra's Al Ghul/Scarecrow. So, boo on that.
A related problem I had was that the foreshadowing in this movie was terrible. Alfred tells the story about the restaurant in Italy, well, there's your ending. The little quips about the autopilot on the "Bat", I mean, come on. All the stuff with Selina Kyle and her fresh start and all of that stuff. The ending was just too obvious.
Having said all of that, I still thought the movie was fun. I liked watching it. I think it's a decent end to the trilogy. The two best parts of the movie were definitely Joseph Gordon-Levitt and (as much as people might disagree) Anne Hathaway. Gordon-Levitt's character was well written, interesting, and he makes a great future... I'm going to go with Nightwing. And Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was very well done. I thought she really understood the character and inhabited her well. It felt like a somewhat fresh take on Catwoman that made sense in the universe this Batman trilogy created, and it felt like a good ending for Bruce Wayne.
At the end of the day, the entire trilogy was great, it changed comic book movies, I can't wait for the new Superman movie next year. But as for this summer, the Spider-man movie was better and the Avengers was probably the best of the comic book movies. Now we wait until next summer and the next crop of superhero movies.
I have to say that this movie was not nearly as good as the second movie, which is not in any way surprising. However, it is certainly much better than many third installments to trilogies and it is in no way a bad movie. My main issues with this movie were the pacing and the predictability. The beginning of the movie, especially, seemed to move very slow. But it was interesting in that it felt like it was paced the way a comic book would be paced, which is kind of neat. And the plot was incredibly predictable. That didn't necessarily make it less satisfying as an end to the trilogy, but it made it a little less interesting. The plot of this movie really went back to Batman Begins, and I had the exact same problems with that movie.
Here's the problem. Ra's Al Ghul has always been my favorite Batman villain. So when I watched Batman Begins I knew immediately that Liam Neeson was Ra's Al Ghul, which apparently was supposed to be a surprise. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who knew it, but I think that the other people who knew were similarly non-plussed by the "reveal" toward the end of the movie. However, knowing that he was Ra's Al Ghul throughout the movie didn't make it any less enjoyable. Then, of course, The Dark Knight happened and Heath Ledger changed comic book villains as we know them. How can you possibly top that? You can't. Plus, Christopher Nolan chose not to even mention the Joker in this film, a decision which I can completely respect.
And then we get to this final movie. Now, one of my favorite storylines with Ra's Al Ghul (and, one of the best ever episodes of Batman the Animated Series, if you watched that) is that Bruce Wayne/Batman falls in love with Talia Al Ghul. Well, this movie starts talking about the League of Shadows and Ra's Al Ghul and here's Bruce Wayne sleeping with some woman. I mean, of course she's Talia Al Ghul. How can you not see that? It was just so predictable, and I was really frustrated with Bruce Wayne's gullibility on that. It didn't ruin the movie for me or anything, but I just wish there had been a slightly better villain. Talia Al Ghul + Bane are clearly not as interesting as Joker/Two-Face, but they're not even as interesting as Ra's Al Ghul/Scarecrow. So, boo on that.
A related problem I had was that the foreshadowing in this movie was terrible. Alfred tells the story about the restaurant in Italy, well, there's your ending. The little quips about the autopilot on the "Bat", I mean, come on. All the stuff with Selina Kyle and her fresh start and all of that stuff. The ending was just too obvious.
Having said all of that, I still thought the movie was fun. I liked watching it. I think it's a decent end to the trilogy. The two best parts of the movie were definitely Joseph Gordon-Levitt and (as much as people might disagree) Anne Hathaway. Gordon-Levitt's character was well written, interesting, and he makes a great future... I'm going to go with Nightwing. And Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was very well done. I thought she really understood the character and inhabited her well. It felt like a somewhat fresh take on Catwoman that made sense in the universe this Batman trilogy created, and it felt like a good ending for Bruce Wayne.
At the end of the day, the entire trilogy was great, it changed comic book movies, I can't wait for the new Superman movie next year. But as for this summer, the Spider-man movie was better and the Avengers was probably the best of the comic book movies. Now we wait until next summer and the next crop of superhero movies.
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