rate the last movie you saw

[Eric Paddon]

Probably helped me when I watched Waterworld that I've never seen any of the Mad Max movies either!

[Paul MacLean]

Probably helped me when I watched Waterworld that I've never seen any of the Mad Max movies either!

You haven't seen The Road Warrior? You're missing out! It is one of the greatest action films ever made, with some of the greatest stuntwork ever.



Unfortunately they didn't use Brian May's score for this trailer (and his music is among the best -- and most poignant -- action scores ever written)...

[AndyDursin]

Why watch Waterworld when you can get the real thing?!!?

I do like Waterworld alright. I don't think the Exxon Valdez stuff was meant to be taken seriously. David Twohy wrote a lot of good scripts back in the 90s and some of his work is in Waterworld, I'd imagine the Hopper scenes since they display his sense of humor.

[mkaroly]

I saw one of the Mad Max films...cannot tell you whether it was the first or second film. I could not get into whichever one I saw, so I skipped the rest.

[Eric Paddon]

Why watch Waterworld when you can get the real thing?!!?

I do like Waterworld alright. I don't think the Exxon Valdez stuff was meant to be taken seriously. David Twohy wrote a lot of good scripts back in the 90s and some of his work is in Waterworld, I'd imagine the Hopper scenes since they display his sense of humor.

It may not have seemed that way at the time but today 30 years later it comes off like a very lame topical joke that harms the movie's otherwise timeless quality with the lack of dated CGI material and the use of full-scale sets. That was my take as it unfolded.

I admit when I watch a film for the first time and I'm by myself, sometimes what's intended as humor that an audience might have laughed at isn't going to necessarily register with me. It's one reason why I have a harder time watching a comedy film I've never seen before.

[AndyDursin]

ST. IVES
6.5/10

TELEFON
5/10

Wan Charles Bronson vehicles from the mid 70s both popped out on Blu-Ray earlier this year -- neither are particularly memorable, and one is an outright fizzle given the people involved in its production.

ST. IVES does feature one of Bronson's more enjoyable performances with the star expressing some vulnerability as a crime reporter/ex-cop who gets involved in retrieving stolen loot from millionaire John Houseman. Jacqueline Bisset leads a pretty strong supporting cast in this first (of too many) J. Lee Thompson/Bronson collaborations, scored by Lalo Schifrin via a soundtrack apropos to the time. Yet as laid back as Bronson is here, this is little more than a perfunctory, 90-minutes-and-out type of exercise that nearly feels like a TV movie.

TELEFON hails from action vet Don Siegel, features a script by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant (from a novel by Water Wager), and finds Bronson as a Russian agent opposite Lee Remick, Tyne Daly, Patick Magee and Donald Pleasence, trying to stop brainwashed Russian agents from blowing up US military installations. It's an interesting premise but the movie is both silly and dull, wasting its participants in a forgettable exercise that Hyams would've been better off directing (he wasn't given the chance) instead of Siegel, who's just going through the motions here.

[Eric Paddon]

Telefon was a much better book. It unfortunately suffered because it was being made in the Detente obsessed 70s which meant you couldn't present a film that deviated from the "plague on both your houses" line of thinking and consequently what happened is that (1) the danger stakes were neutered because in the book, *active* military sites were being destroyed by the moles, not "inactive" ones and (2) you had a Soviet assassin out to kill Bronson's character and keep him from succeeding because there were Kremlin militants who wanted the whole thing to go through and not be stopped and (3) let's just say the ending is one that is unabashedly pro-US and not what we saw in the film. I did a more detailed write-up in the "read the book, see the movie" thread.

[AndyDursin]

Yes, thanks Eric, I remembered you writing that up and I found it via a board search. Seems like it was stuck in that era where Hollywood was trying, at times, to strike a "can't we all just get along" tone in a lot of these films. Either way it's a movie that, beyond that, could have still been entertaining but was doomed by some silly writing and cooked up by too many chefs with conflicting styles and agendas (Siegel, Silliphant, Hyams, etc.).

[AndyDursin]

THE FALL GUY
5.5/10

Noisy and unappealing update of the old '80s TV series has a few funny moments but never for a second did I buy the supposed relationship between Ryan Gosling (as a veteran movie stuntman) and Emily Blunt, his former camera operator bestie, now a big-time director on a movie where its lead actor (Aaron Taylor Johnson) gets involved in some seriously deadly off-screen shenanigans.

"John Wick" vet David Leitch knows how to stage action scenes but he's completely out of his element attempting to employ a lighter touch which this material desperately needed to work. Instead of being charming the film is heavy-handed and bombastic to an extreme, pounding jokes into the ground while Blunt never acts as if she's inhabiting a real human being -- more a character you'd see on an SNL sketch. Gosling is OK doing his usual thing but it's no surprise this repetitive, one-note movie failed to generate a lot of audience enthusiasm, as its priorities end up in all the wrong places, accentuating spectacle and effects over actual human emotions and dramatic interest.

[Paul MacLean]

Heavy Metal: The Movie (6.5/10)

LaLa Land's announcement that they are reissuing Elmer Bernstein's score prompted me to want to revisit this film.

I don't think I've watched this movie since I wrote the liner notes for the FSM CD back in 2008. I remember liking Heavy Metal quite a bit, but was rather less-impressed this time. Although the film has a raunchy, gritty tone, that doesn't really bother me -- this is, after-all, a movie that caters to the fantasies of adolescent nerds, so the gore and proliferation of naked women is actually funny to me.

The premise is certainly interesting, Heavy Metal being something of a "rock 'n roll Fantasia", but the varying quality of the stories is where the movie falters. The "Harry Canyon" segment is a potentially-interesting mashup of Taxi Driver and The Maltese Falcon, but it doesn't have much energy or dramatic tension.

The "Den" segment is terrific, and the most entertaining, as a nerdy teenager is whisked into another universe where his scrawny body is replaced with a large, muscular physique (and busty women throw themselves at him).

"Captain Stern" is a simplistic, almost throwaway story, as is "How Beautiful, How Dangerous" (in which a ditzy secretary, accidentally abducted by an alien ship, falls in love with a robot).

The "B-17" segment is effectively atmospheric and creepy, but isn't much of a story.

The concluding episode, "Taarna" is among the best, as a sensual woman warrior journeys to defend a faraway land which as been invaded by mutants.

The use of songs heard in the film is generally misplaced and ineffective. I get that this was a movie for late 70s / early 80s teenagers, and some of the music should cater to that demographic -- but the tunes are haphazardly troweled into the film, with little relevance to the imagery on screen. In particular the "B-17" sequence opens with Don Felder's "Take A Ride" -- replacing the bold, visceral (and dramatically-effective) music Elmer Bernstein wrote for its opening scenes. The only song that really works well is Devo's "Through being Cool" -- as Devo's style is in many ways aligned with the aesthetic of Heavy Metal Magazine (plus Devo themselves appear on screen in a genuinely funny animated cameo).

Further on Elmer Bernstein, I submit his score for Heavy Metal is his best ever -- I rate it more highly than The Magnificent Seven or Slipstream (albeit by a narrow margin) and I think it smokes a lot of his "classic" efforts (like The Ten Commandments or To Kill A Mockingbird). Moreover, the variety of stories and myriad of otherworldly settings allows Bernstein to crate a very eclectic score. The "Den" episiode draws on Bernstein's penchant for old-fashioned heroics, while the "Taarna" segment's long, extended scenes (and minimal dialog) allows the composer to take a foreground role, highlighting a rapturously sensual theme for its heroine.

Heavy Metal is an interesting entry in the "edgy animated fantasy" genre, though it is a very uneven film -- both in terms of its assorted stories, but also the animation quality (rarely if ever animating at the full 24 frames per second, which I find a little frustrating to watch). The "Den" and "Tarrna" segments are by far the best -- plus they rely the most on Elmer Bernstein's score, which brings a lot to this movie -- but the other episodes are very underwhelming, and the result is a watchable but ultimately unsatisfying movie.

[AndyDursin]

*BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED
6/10



I can't even remember watching this movie from start to end -- when it opened I was 13 and wasn't up for a "cute UFO and old folks" movie, even if it was a Steven Spielberg production -- but we sat down and watched it with Theo last night and...well, it's weird, that's for sure.

A movie writer (and AMAZING STORIES story editor) Mick Garris apparently conceived as a series episode before producer Spielberg decided to turn it into a film, using two different screenwriting teams (the guys who did TREMORS and SHORT CIRCUIT, plus a young Brad Bird, working with director Matthew Robbins), which eventually became one of Robbins' many box-office underachievers (Warning Sign, Corvette Summer, Legend of Billie Jean, etc.).

The result is NOT a gooey kids movie -- in fact there isn't even a child in this film -- but rather what comes off as Spielberg's variation on COCOON, even using one of its stars (Hume Cronyn) in a movie that is shocking for the amount of pain and sadness it has, even with its cute "family" of mechanical UFOs intermittently flying around.

The story is straightforward: an NYC tycoon wants to buy up the last remaining holdout from his skyscraper development, an old tenement building with a group of disparate folks (Cronyn and absent minded Jessica Tandy; mentally challenged ex-fighter Frank McRae; a single pregnant woman played by Elizabeth Pena; and Dennis Boutsikaris as an artist) who refuse to leave. They are harassed by one of the tycoon's local goons (Michael Carmine) before a mysterious group of UFOs descend from the skies above just in time to "fix" things.

*BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED as it stands would never get made today -- it would be completely aimed at kids and not the broader audience (again, think COCOON) which this film was going after. Thus, it's odd to see a film marketed as a family picture like this when so much of it is going after adults. To that end, there's a surprising amount of build-up (nearly a half hour) before the UFOs even appear, which is mostly devoted to the cruel punishment Carmine dishes out to Cronyn and company -- it comes off as excessive for a PG rated Spielberg film and even offers some unnecessary profanity.

The story lines for these characters is also decidedly adult in nature: an elderly woman with dementia being cared for by her husband; an unwed, about-to-be mother (this subplot would never fly today with turns out to be a pro-life message connected with the UFOs); and a genteel ex-fighter who has lost his marbles all seem geared towards a serious dramatic edge the rest of the movie (with its cute ILM UFO's that' are perfect for kids) isn't at all focused on.

The tone is correspondingly a bit all over the place too, ranging from syrupy sadness to slapstick, undoubtedly the result of too many screenwriters with their own agendas -- all reasons why this film didn't score at the box-office as Universal's Christmas '87 release.

All of that being said (and it's a lot), the film eventually pays off in its final half-hour, offering a nice ending and James Horner's supportive score to match. It's just an uneven ride getting there, showing too many signs of it being conceived as an AMAZING STORIES episode and stretched out with adult-level material, some of which is unnecessarily strong, but was obviously patterned after the kind of broad appeal COCOON had (elderly viewers, the main "adult" box-office demo, plus kids there for the special effects).

BTW Imprint's Blu-Ray has some nice special features including an interview with Horner's widow Sara, who details their relationship, Horner's affinity for scoring kids films (and interest in children's literature and fantasy as well), the fact he was so bright he could score a lot of these films with little effort (which might explain the glut of formula scores he put out at times, especially early on in his career), and his eccentricity in general. It's a super if short interview, and his score for the movie is pleasant as well.

[Paul MacLean]

Fatal Attraction (8.5/10)

This is the first time I've at down to watch this movie since seeing it in the theater in 1987. Fatal Attraction is a film that really stands the test of time, and is as effective a nail-biting experience today as when first released.

What lifts this film above the average thriller is a first-rate script, adapted by James Deardon from his TV movie Diversion (with help from an uncredited Nicholas Meyer, who actually penned the final shooting script) and a cast of believable, three-dimensional characters -- all played by first-rate performers, guided by the very underrated Adrian Lynne. The film effectively shifts the viewer's sympathies as it progresses -- at the outset, Michael Douglas is a despicable jerk for cheating on his wife, while the viewer feels for Glenn Close as she is used and discarded. Over the course of the story however, Close is revealed as a dangerous erotomanic, while Douglas earns our sympathies when sobered by the realization of what he's set in motion.

Despite its thrills and scares (and some disturbing moments that really push the envelope -- even today) Fatal Attraction also has moments that are very touching, and emotionally resonant, in those scenes involving Douglas and his family. Observers at the time suggested the script was a metaphor for AIDS -- which I think it is a bit of a stretch. But it is clear that Fatal Attraction reflects the sexual attitudes of the 1980s -- which were a response to the way the sexual mores of the 1960s became mainstream, and metastasized into the hedonism of the 1970s (which would of course lead to the AIDS epidemic). The film is definitely a cautionary tale about the repercussions of infidelity, and depicts how adultery is never harmless -- which plays to the more traditional zeitgeist of the Reagan era (though I'm sure this was never the intention of the filmmakers and cast!)

Director Adrian Lynn invests the film with arresting (but not over-obvious) visual panache, aided by cinematographer Howard Atherton (Black Rain). Maurice Jarre's score is -- from a dramatic perspective -- one of his finest in my estimation. Thought often strident and abstract, the music creates a subtle, but palpable sense of unease, and fear. And when able to express the more tender emotions, Jarre's love theme for the film is one the most gorgeous things he ever wrote (and dwarfs his popular "Lara's Theme" for its sheer passion).

Fatal Attraction is a genuinely iconic film -- as further evidence by the way is was later ripped-off in Sleeping With The Enemy and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. It is also among those rare movies that does not feel like "an old movie", even decades later. Other than the cars and landlines (and Glenn Close's cassette tape) Fatal Attraction looks as though it could have been made within the last decade (in contrast to Michael Douglas' later "beleaguered male" outing Disclosure, which is firmly stuck in the 90s).

It may not be the most profound movie ever made, but Fatal Attraction is a nearly flawless film that works like clockwork, and absolutely succeeds in its intentions.

[Paul MacLean]

Gremlins (7/10)

I decided to observe the anniversary of this movie with another viewing (I can't recall the last time I watched it).

But this one doesn't hold-up so well. Gremlins is certainly "watchable", and at the time of its release was certainly different than anything else you'd see at the movie house. Its "E.T. meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in the setting of It's A Wonderful Life" was certainly an original idea, but the film is also a little slow-moving, doesn't pack a lot emotional punch, isn't especially scary or suspenseful and feels small in scope -- like a TV movie, or a pretty good Amazing Stories episode.

The cast are terrific, particularly Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates. Keye Luke is also wonderful as the mysterious Chinese merchant. Chris Wallace's effects are phenomenal. And the film has got its got its moments -- France Lee McCain's fight with gremlins being one the best sequences. But such moments are offset by tedious stretches, like the bar scene, which is silly and vulgar -- and twice as long as it needs to be. And what is the point of Phoebe Cates' monolog about her father dying in the chimney? It's so awkward and out of left field -- it has nothing to do with the story overall and stops the movie dead in its tracks. Gizmo is taken from Billy at the end, as Keye Luke is admonishes the family for "not understanding" nature, and it all adds up to rather depressing movie. Jerry Goldsmith's score is clever and effective, but not one of his best.

Universal's "Anytown, USA" backlot set isn't especially convincing either. I can understand their not wanting to shoot an effects-intensive picture in Minnesota or New Hampshire during January -- but it's ironic that so much care was put into the animatronic effects, yet the snow effects look completely fake (snow falls from above, so cars and vegetation wouldn't look like they were spray-painted from the side, and snow on city streets is usually melted from salt and the sun).

The only really remarkable thing about Gremlins is that a major studio let a young director make an expensive half-sentimental / half-grotesque black comedy. That would never happen today.

[AndyDursin]

That scene in GREMLINS is so odd, it really shows the conflicting agendas from Chris Columbus' original script (more of an outright horror movie), Dante's sentiments, and Spielberg's sensibilities. The latter really made the film what it was -- it would've been a cheapjack horror movie essentially without them (Gizmo was supposed to become Stripe; the Gremlins were running around killing everyone, etc.). Being tempered with Spielberg's "touch" made the film workable and marketable for kids (and mainstream audiences in general), even the ones traumatized by the Gremlin in the microwave!

But I agree Paul, that scene is so weird and seems very out of place, and there is some tension throughout the rest of movie in terms of a push/pull in terms of who wanted what from that picture. I guess Spielberg wanted the scene in question removed as the studio did but because Dante "fought for it" Spielberg went with what his director wanted. In the end I think it was the wrong call -- people remarked about it at the time, and for years afterwards for being inappropriate -- and the bit in GREMLINS 2 where they poke fun at it was one of the best gags in that sequel, which was MUCH more comedic and lighter.

I still like GREMLINS an awful lot. The studio bound element was very much intentional IMO -- it's supposed to look artificial like a Capra movie or something shot on the back lot, and have it contrast with the gremlins running around. Goldsmith's score works well for me too, I especially like the "Gizmo theme" and it's hard not to feel a little "wetness" in the eyes in the last scene as Keye Luke walks back out into the snow and down the road with Gizmo. The best moments are when the Gremlins go crazy yet still managed to sing during Snow White -- I loved that and it's clear Dante wanted more of that (and less of the "horror stuff") going forward in the second film.

A lot of Dante's work, I feel, hasn't aged great though. THE HOWLING has never been a big favorite of mine. INNERSPACE is overstuffed with material, it's too long and misses the mark. THE BURBS isn't very good. I don't care for his TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE segment at all. EXPLORERS we watched with Theo a few weeks ago and, no matter how many times I've watched it, the last 40 minutes is as awful a "3rd act" as you'll ever see, pretty much ever. It's so horrendous it's a wonder they even released that film.

That leaves MATINEE (which coincidentally is in 4K next week and I'm reviewing currently), which is one of his best movies, and the two GREMLINS films. I still like both of them. The 2nd movie is basically a live-action, modern day WB cartoon and taken on that level it has a lot of energy and comedy in it (plus John Glover, who's great, as a Trump/Turner-like NYC Mogul). By the time it was made it had few takers and didn't please the people who liked the "edge" of the first movie, but it has some inspired stuff (including Leonard Maltin satirizing his review of the first movie too).

[Eric Paddon]

The Deep (1977) 6 of 10
Into The Blue (2005) 4 of 10

-Andy's writeup of the latter as an "unofficial" remake of the former (similar plot device but obviously not the same story) made me decide to revisit the original for the first time in years and check out the latter for the first time. I really feel like "The Deep" was a success at the box office in spite of itself because if didn't have the iconic image of Jacqueline Bisset's wet t-shirt I wonder how many theatergoers would have seen this film expecting a "Jaws" type story (given Benchley's name, the setting, the presence of Shaw and the fact that the trailers I think put a greater stress on the moray eel in the hull!) and come away thinking they were duped? The location photography and the performers is what really keeps this film from boring me frankly because the whole storyline involving drugs in a sunken WW2 ship that just happens to also be lying on top of an old Spanish wreck isn't the most gripping of storylines from my standpoint. Shaw is great, Bisset is sexy. Nick Nolte not so great. Barry's score I didn't think was effective as it could have been, especially during the climactic underwater fight scenes (at least he livened things up more in "Thunderball"). The film is watchable but it needed a more compelling story IMO.

I had hoped to do a "read the book, watch the movie" thing for this film but unfortunately the book has not been issued on Kindle so I have no chance to revisit it. The one thing different about the book I do remember is that David and Gail are actually on their honeymoon, though the backstory says David left his wife and two kids for Gail! I guess that's why they decided to change it to vaguely defined unmarried relationship (don't know why they couldn't just be newlyweds without the bad backstory unless they felt it was necessary for them to have some existing angst in their relationship). And of course Shaw doesn't live at the end.

-"Into The Blue" I had never seen before. It copycats the plot (drugs in one wreck, old treasure nearby) and in the end reveals to me why I have little regard for the performers of this last generation because they exude ZERO gravitas. I had never seen a movie with Jessica Alba before and while she looks great she's like a child compared to Bisset who was all WOMAN. Paul Walker is so-so in the lead, but I have to be honest I hated Scott Caan as the sleazy lawyer/friend whose greed and willingness to utilize the coke shipment caused all the trouble ultimately, and the fact this character LIVES and gets to profit at the end rubbed me the wrong way completely. His character deserved to be chomped by the sharks more than Ashley Scott did (not that she was much better as a person but if one of them died, both of them should have died). The "music" is awful and the diving scenes come off as fake compared to "The Deep". These characters have a strange ability to hold their breath far longer than normal people or even experienced divers should be capable of doing and that too worked against the credibility.