No one in this movie looks like the age of the character they are playing except maybe Anne Hathaway, who everyone acts like is this decrepit crone. I think it’s supposed to be shocking that a twentysomething pop star falls for a beautiful art dealer who hangs out backstage at Coachella because she is 40 years old. But… it didn’t seem that wild to me (especially since the lead actor looks more like 30 than 25).
I will say, the two leads do have a lot of chemistry. They kiss a lot.
Never got near this movie when it came out because its reputation was so rancid and because, well, what does a teenager want with a poorly-reviewed, weird-looking biopic about Anthony Hopkins promoting alternative medicines while giving Matthew Broderick colonics? (This film surely contains more enemas than any other mainstream American movie in history. It probably contains more enemas than every other American movie released in the entirety of the 1990s put together!)
So I kind of understand the bad reviews.…
Undoubtedly made on a comparative shoestring, The Road Warrior always awes me with its scale. In some of the wide shots of the wasteland, you can see the curvature of the Earth in the distance — or so it seems thanks to whatever camera lenses George Miller used. One explosion is so massive its shockwave rattles the camera hundreds of feet away. The Road Warrior feels like the biggest movie ever made. It feels like the last movie ever made. I’ve never seen it in a theater. I really need to.
Somewhat related: I would watch a 10-part miniseries starring Max’s dog.
At one point during Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ long final third, a character we’re meant to see as a misguided villain warns another character we’re meant to see as heroic that they’ve “got to stop thinking about the way things were and start thinking about the way things are.”
The problem is... that’s actually good advice, if not in the context of this specific scene then at least for studio executives charting the course of Planet of the Apes.
Full review at ScreenCrush.
1999: A long time ago and a galaxy far, far away.
I took a new look at this now old movie at ScreenCrush.
I held off watching this for a long time because I saw it performed live in New York and it was truly one of the great theatrical experiences of my life. I didn’t think any filmed version of the show could possibly capture what happened in the room, which was beautiful and funny and even a little profound — dare I say, magical.
And, sure, there are things in a performance like this that can only be witnessed live. Sleight…
A movie of adventure, with visceral naval warfare scenes full of rumbling explosions and flying wooden shards. And a movie of textures; the details of sailing life in this period feel so real you can almost smell the grog and hardtack. And also a movie of lessons; it reminds every viewer that one must always choose the lesser of two weevils.
“Director of Photography - Christopher Doyle H.K.S.C.” uhhhh what? (It doesn’t especially look like a Christopher Doyle movie in my opinion; if you walked into the film after the opening credits, you’d never know.)
I was a huge Swingers fan who was so excited for this in 2001 — and then largely baffled by it when it finally came out because after one of the all-time great hangout movies, Favreau and Vaughn followed it with Made, which is like the film…
This is as much a documentary as it is video evidence that should have been presented at someone’s trial. Yikes.
It is amazing how fast you can get cinephiles to love a loan shark who routinely threatens and beats people just by making him a fellow cinephile. Look at how excited Chili is to meet a stunt man! He knows the dialogue from Touch of Evil by heart! I can’t root against a guy like that.