315.
I was doing my Oscar Watch blog for 1955 and realized that I had never seen East Of Eden. I just always put James Dean in my Best Actor lineup for Rebel Without A Cause and left it at that. Since he got Oscar nominated for this role I needed to finally check it out. This movie bored me very much. From the first scene you sort of understand that it's a modern day Cain and Abel story, two brothers hate each other, there's a stern father, blah blah blah, and it never got more exciting. Dean's good but had he not died early and become the icon he was I couldn't tell you what the big deal was. The movie looks pretty, Elia Kazan shoots every scene with purpose, but the story did nothing for me. 👎
316.
This movie has a spot in the IMDB bottom 100, and for good reason. It's an incomprehensible mess. Characters appear and disappear without any reason, all the dialogue is nonsense techno babble and the plot makes no sense. In this future world the internet is a virtual reality world where people "jack in" and fly through the air to get information. An evil company is going to use the internet to steal people's individuality, I think, like I said the plot makes very little sense and it's tied together with Matt Frewer doing an unapologetic Jim Carrey impression. Molly Shannon shows up as a homeless lady in the background of one scene so we talked about this on the Saturday Night Jive podcast, available on iTunes. 👎
317.
I was completely prepared to hate this film. It looks like Oklahoma! without the songs. It's just about a town getting ready for and then going to a big picnic. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. This is a very mild recommendation, the pace is a little slow and it certainly benefited from low expectations so I don't want to oversell it, but I liked it. It had a Twin Peaks feel to it, there's no murder but everyone in this small town is not what they appear to be. It's very sexually charged too. I really like movies about sex from this era because they can't be explicit with the dialogue but everyone in this movie is thinking about sex or wanting sex, especially the young girls and boys. It's not a great movie, it certainly shouldn't have been nominated for Best Picture, but it is very pleasant and the cast is extremely watchable. 👍
318.
I edit a lot. I first got into editing in High School and have since edited several short films and TV shows. Sometimes it's hard for me to watch a movie and separate my enjoyment of the story and the technical aspects. This movie seems hodgepodged together. When two characters are talking there is a weird disconnect between their lines and they don't seem to be having a real conversation. It's hard to decipher how much of this is bad editing and how much is just that this is an older film and hasn't been preserved well but it really hurt my enjoyment of the film. It's a fantasy about a man who meets a young girl in the park, she seems to exist on a different plane and keeps aging. He paints a picture of her and it sells and he falls in love with her. Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones have little chemistry and the movie just didn't work for me. 👎
319.
Arthur Kennedy won a Golden Globe and got an Oscar nomination for playing a communist lawyer who uses a Mexican teenager on trial for murder to publicize the communist cause. All the scenes with Kennedy in this movie work. Unfortunately, the uncharismatic Glenn Ford is the lead of the film. Ford plays the lawyer who is trying to get the innocent teenager a fair trial and Kennedy is the lawyer who is just drumming up the circus. It's a half good film, Kennedy definitely deserved a nod but everything around him is rather dull. 👎
320.
I felt dirty watching this ABC television movie from 2000. The story is about a lonely toy maker who wants a boy all to his own. He doesn't want a family, he just wants a boy. Then a fairy grants him his wish and almost immediately he regrets his decision. Then Pinocchio runs away from home and instead of seeing his adventures we follow Geppetto, as he runs into random celebrity cameos looking for his little wooden boy. Then there's a scene where Rene Auberjonis creates little boys and girls and parades them out for Geppetto. The songs are pretty bad and Drew Carey doesn't have the most pleasant singing voice. All around this was a pretty miserable watch. 👎
321.
Now obviously I had a morbid curiosity about this movie when I saw the poster. Michael Keaton is getting sandwiched between the twin towers by a giant hand. This has nothing to do with the movie. At no point does Michael Keaton become a Godzilla like monster and he is defeated by a giant hand. This is a genre that I'm glad died out, the 80s comedy/action/thriller. For every Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hours there's a shitty movie like The Squeeze. Keaton is a wisecracking small time con artist who runs afoul of bad guys and spends the movie ducking everybody while making quips. The comedy isn't funny and the action isn't exciting. It just sits on the screen like a big fat turd. 👎
325.
I could never tell if this movie was in on the joke. It's about a group of old timers taking back their streets from young toughs. It's fun to see the old gang back together, Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier, but there was no fun to be had in anything they were doing. Small little moments made me smile ironically, like when Fred Williamson takes down a thug with a frozen burrito but it just reminded me of a typical blaxploitation movie, and not a very interesting one at that. 👎
327.
For some reason I always thought this was a religious film. I'm glad I had no idea what this movie about because it completely surprised me. You follow this family living their lives and then 20 minutes in...BOOM! Nuclear holocaust. The whole community is cut off from the outside world and they are trying to figure out what to do now. I really appreciated how dark this was. I mean it's a bummer to watch, but so is nuclear fallout. 👍
328.
It seems like the farther Tom Cruise's star falls the more I like him as an actor. He's slowly becoming someone I not only like seeing in a movie but someone that I anticipate seeing in a movie. Here he plays a pilot who starts working covertly with the CIA and then ends up smuggling cocaine for the Mexican drug cartel. I love how this movie opens with a "kill the cat" moment. Tom Cruise starts some turbulence while everyone is asleep just because he's bored. Cruise is great at playing an unsympathetic protagonist and Doug Liman keeps the story at a nice pace as if the editor got his hands on some of that Colombian booger sugar. 👍
329.
Sequels always disappoint, there's either too much of the same or not enough of what you loved in the first place. In this case, the original was fresh and new and had a style all of its own. It was the best James Bond movie never made. This has some good moments but while I was watching it I kept thinking about how cool it would be to watch the first one again. This one has all action and little emotional stakes and I think I pinpointed why. They bring back Colin Firth from the dead. In the first movie they kill him unexpectedly and that adds danger to the film. They resurrect him in this movie and that removes all stakes, if anyone dies in this movie they can almost assuredly bring them back for Kingsman 3. So, it's a bit of a letdown but still fun. 👍
331.
This movie is a huge mess. Little history lesson on this movie, it was shot in 1998 and test audiences hated it so Miramax ordered reshoots, they cut out a lot of the homosexuality and added a love interest subplot with Neve Campbell's character. Audiences and critics still hated it. 10 years later the director got a hold of the footage, cut out all the reshot material and added back in the stuff that was cut out. That's the version I saw, and it still makes no sense. This movie is not about Studio 54, it's about a young kid who gets a job there, does some drugs, has sex with some ladies and learns absolutely nothing. Can you have a movie where the character doesn't change at all? I suppose you can, and that movie is called 54, but it's not interesting. 👎
333.
Sometimes my girlfriend will call me a hipster because I tend to gravitate to the more "art-house" films that don't get big promotions. I tell her that I am just drawn to interesting stories that I haven't seen before. The reason I don't classify myself as a hipster is because when a huge turd of a film like this comes on I refuse to pretend that it has any redeeming factors. I couldn't tell you what the plot of Lemon is. Brett Gelman stars as a guy, who may or may not have some sort of social disorder and he goes about his life in unbroken takes. The pacing of this movie is like an endurance test. Shots just stay on actors as if you think something will happen but it never does. I hated every minute of this film and could never get a handle on what the plot was. Characters talk as if they are having two separate conversations. I was so bored that I kept thinking that maybe this was a commentary on pretentious independent films, but no, I think they just made a pretentious independent film. 👎
322.
There's a reason why film and television are two different mediums. This movie feels like an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie got fired from The Alan Brady Show and got jobs at a restaurant. On a sitcom you're more focused on gags than character development and this movie just seems like a team of writers were trying to cram as many jokes into the script as possible. The actors even pause for laughs like they are playing in front of a studio audience, we're just missing the laugh track. It's not a terrible movie, it's just really forgettable. Morey Amsterdam gets caught up in some spy plot and there's a lot of celebrity cameos. 👎
323.
If I ever say a movie broke my brain again, I need to think back on the first time I watched Bewitched. This movie is incomprehensible. Nicole Kidman is a witch and Will Ferrell is an actor who is starring in a remake of the Bewitched television show. It's like if Shadow Of The Vampire was a romantic comedy. However, Kidman is a real witch who has never seen the original television show, even though in this universe it is a show that everybody holds dear in their hearts. It's the most meta movie ever made. My biggest problem with the film is that there are no rules to Kidman's magic. She can do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, she can rewind time or make people think whatever she wants them to think. She's a God and there are no stakes to the film because if she wanted to she could just erase existence as we know it. Then it ends with Steve Carrell as Uncle Arthur as a deus ex machina. Now Uncle Arthur is played by Paul Lynde in this universe but then visits Will Ferrell in the form of Steve Carell doing a Paul Lynde impression. Then Uncle Arthur literally drives him back to his woman. Have we ever established who Uncle Atrthus is? Nope. The movie ends as kind of a prequel to the series where they move in next door to the nosy neighbors from the original sitcom. Do they realize that their lives mirror the neighbors of a sitcom from 40 years ago? What the hell is going on here? 👎
324.
I usually don't like biopics and this movie is thankfully more courtroom drama than biopic. Chadwick Boseman plays Thurgood Marshall who takes the case of a black man accused of rape and attempted murder. The movie focuses almost solely on the trial so when historical context is thrown in it seems like unnecessary filler. Like when Marshall visits his friends August Wilson and Langston Hughes for no reason, or his wife miscarries or they mention the German problem happening overseas. None of these things matter to the story they are just thrown in like a child giving a book report who doesn't know what to focus on. The courtroom drama stuff is slightly compelling but I kept wondering, why this court case? The text epilogue references Brown vs. Board Of Education and being appointed the first black member of the supreme court but the movie we just watched made him seem like a magical lawyer who swept into town, like Bagger Vance with a law degree. 👎325.
I could never tell if this movie was in on the joke. It's about a group of old timers taking back their streets from young toughs. It's fun to see the old gang back together, Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier, but there was no fun to be had in anything they were doing. Small little moments made me smile ironically, like when Fred Williamson takes down a thug with a frozen burrito but it just reminded me of a typical blaxploitation movie, and not a very interesting one at that. 👎
326.
I avoided this movie for so long, I just assumed I would hate it. I like when I'm wrong. This movie was very enjoyable. Barbra Streisand wrote, directed, produced and stars as a young Jewish girl who want to study the Talmud. Girls are not allowed to study religious law though so after he father dies she cuts her hair, disguises herself as a boy and goes to hebrew school. She falls in love with Mandy Patinkin, who is in love with another girl, she ends up marrying the girl that Mandy is in love with, and the movie is just wall to wall songs, and good songs at that. Does Babs convincingly play a teenage boy? Not really, but you accept it because the characters accept it. 👍327.
For some reason I always thought this was a religious film. I'm glad I had no idea what this movie about because it completely surprised me. You follow this family living their lives and then 20 minutes in...BOOM! Nuclear holocaust. The whole community is cut off from the outside world and they are trying to figure out what to do now. I really appreciated how dark this was. I mean it's a bummer to watch, but so is nuclear fallout. 👍
328.
It seems like the farther Tom Cruise's star falls the more I like him as an actor. He's slowly becoming someone I not only like seeing in a movie but someone that I anticipate seeing in a movie. Here he plays a pilot who starts working covertly with the CIA and then ends up smuggling cocaine for the Mexican drug cartel. I love how this movie opens with a "kill the cat" moment. Tom Cruise starts some turbulence while everyone is asleep just because he's bored. Cruise is great at playing an unsympathetic protagonist and Doug Liman keeps the story at a nice pace as if the editor got his hands on some of that Colombian booger sugar. 👍
329.
Sequels always disappoint, there's either too much of the same or not enough of what you loved in the first place. In this case, the original was fresh and new and had a style all of its own. It was the best James Bond movie never made. This has some good moments but while I was watching it I kept thinking about how cool it would be to watch the first one again. This one has all action and little emotional stakes and I think I pinpointed why. They bring back Colin Firth from the dead. In the first movie they kill him unexpectedly and that adds danger to the film. They resurrect him in this movie and that removes all stakes, if anyone dies in this movie they can almost assuredly bring them back for Kingsman 3. So, it's a bit of a letdown but still fun. 👍
330.
There was a reality to the absurdity in this fake documentary about a group of hitmen trying to assassinate a fellow hitman that I really liked. I also liked the way it was directed by Taran Killam. He plays with the documentary format and shoots almost every scene with one camera. The action scenes have a nice choreography to them as the camera spins around in one take. I was enjoying how well the movie was made so much that I forgot that I wasn't laughing. I would definitely recommend it for a watch on a lazy afternoon, but don't expect a gut buster. 👍331.
This movie is a huge mess. Little history lesson on this movie, it was shot in 1998 and test audiences hated it so Miramax ordered reshoots, they cut out a lot of the homosexuality and added a love interest subplot with Neve Campbell's character. Audiences and critics still hated it. 10 years later the director got a hold of the footage, cut out all the reshot material and added back in the stuff that was cut out. That's the version I saw, and it still makes no sense. This movie is not about Studio 54, it's about a young kid who gets a job there, does some drugs, has sex with some ladies and learns absolutely nothing. Can you have a movie where the character doesn't change at all? I suppose you can, and that movie is called 54, but it's not interesting. 👎
332.
Every time I think I'm over superhero movies a fun one comes along and makes me realize that I like superheros fighting bad guys and saving the day. I think what ruins them for me is when a bad one comes along and it colors my view. I don't want my superheros to be dark and tortured and more to the point when they have fight scenes I want to see what is going on. Almost all of the action in this movie takes place in broad daylight where I can physically see what is going on. I also appreciated the fact that I didn't have to see Uncle Ben die or Peter get bit by a spider for the millionth time. He's just a teenager focused on teenage stuff and then he has to save the world, and when he does he still acts like a teenager. Tom Holland is terrific as the titular web slinger and Michael Keaton creates a sympathetic villain. He's not hell bent on world domination or destruction he just wants to run his business in a shady way and get rid of anyone in his way. This movie doesn't redefine the genre but it takes all the best things about it and gives you a fun time. 👍
333.
Sometimes my girlfriend will call me a hipster because I tend to gravitate to the more "art-house" films that don't get big promotions. I tell her that I am just drawn to interesting stories that I haven't seen before. The reason I don't classify myself as a hipster is because when a huge turd of a film like this comes on I refuse to pretend that it has any redeeming factors. I couldn't tell you what the plot of Lemon is. Brett Gelman stars as a guy, who may or may not have some sort of social disorder and he goes about his life in unbroken takes. The pacing of this movie is like an endurance test. Shots just stay on actors as if you think something will happen but it never does. I hated every minute of this film and could never get a handle on what the plot was. Characters talk as if they are having two separate conversations. I was so bored that I kept thinking that maybe this was a commentary on pretentious independent films, but no, I think they just made a pretentious independent film. 👎
334.
Just when I think maybe Stephen King books are un-filmable a great Stephen King adaptation comes along. That movie was It. This is a piece of garbage. Not only is the story incomprehensible, I have absolutely no idea what's going on, but the movie is just not well filmed. It has the feel of a cheap 1980s direct to video movie. Not something I would expect to come out in theaters in 2017. 👎
335.
An interesting premise turns into torture porn pretty quickly but it is still a pretty fun movie. People working in an office are told that half of them need to be murdered or all of them will be killed. People start trying for a way out before eventually succumbing to what is demanded of them. There's some very fun moments, it is well paced and well directed but like I said be prepared for a lot of senseless murder. 👍
336.
A romantic biopic about Canadian painter Maud Lewis wasn't a movie I thought I would enjoy but I was surprised with how simple and sweet the story was. Instead of going for biopic tropes they went romance tropes and focus mainly on the unconventional love story between Sally Hawkins as Lewis and Ethan Hawke as her fishmonger employer turned husband. Hawkins and Hawke are both really good and their performances keep the film moving. 👍
337.
Sometimes I wonder if I can still appreciate films aimed at a target audience younger than myself. For instance, I could never compare Finding Dory to Bambi because I first saw Bambi when I was 10 and when I was 10 every movie was magical and when I watch it now it brings back memories of the first time I saw it. Now I'm a jaded adult, I'll never have that sense of wonder again. Then I see a movie like My Bodyguard and realize that a good movie is a good movie and I can always find enjoyment in them. This movie brought me back to the age of the main character, trying to fit in to the world with my humor and getting ostracized for it, feeling like you're alone against everyone trying to destroy you. I absolutely adored this movie where a young kid hires another ostracized kid to protect him from bullies. It's a terrific coming of age film filled with great performances from the young ensemble. 👍
338.
The ghost kid is the least weird thing about this movie. Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg find a baby outside their apartment which was left their by their third roommate Ted Danson's ex. They raise the baby while Ted is out of the country. Now Danson also has a friend who told him he was dropping off a mysterious package at his house. The package is full of heroin, so when gangsters come looking for it, Tom Selleck assumes that they are there for the baby. Then there is a mafia subplot that accumulates with Ted Danson dressing as a woman and taking the baby with him to an undercover sting. Why can't this movie just be about Three Men And A Baby? Luckily, Colin Quinn makes an appearance so you can hear all my thoughts on the Saturday Night Jive Podcast, available on iTunes. 👎
339.
This was the only Oscar nominated film from 1980 that I've never seen so I had to check it out for one of my upcoming blogs. Ellen Burstyn gets into a car accident and loses the use of her legs. She recovers, as if by magic, and then realizes that she has magical healing abilities. She becomes a faith healer of sorts and a celebrity. Some people are happy she can do this, a few people think she's the devil, but what was missing for me was what Ellen Burstyn thought. There's never a scene where she questions her powers or resents them. She just has them and there is no conflict except that her husband gets jealous of her fame. It's interestingly shot, the director uses some cool surreal imagery for the afterlife but it's a very forgettable film. 👎
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