rate the last movie you saw

[Monterey Jack]

I mean, it really IS crazy how this street racing series evolved into a global box-office franchise. SEVEN installments? It's insane. There's really nothing else to compare it to.

With most teen-oriented franchises, by the time the seventh(!) movie is released, the series is coasting on fumes (look at the 80's slasher-movie paradigm), but the F&F movies are unusual because they actually evolved into something very different from the "hot chicks gyrating around cool cars" street racing stuff from the first three entries. I mean, if you were some fifteen-year-old back in 2001 talking excitedly to your friends about how "awesome" and "bitchin'" the first F&F was, I somehow doubt you'd still be up for the seventh entry in the series almost fifteen years later now that you were pushing thirty and probably had a wife and kids and a mortgage, especially if they had remained as juvenile and one-note as those early entries were. The only other aging franchise I can think of that has managed to stay fresh by changing up the overall tone and style of each successive installment have been the Mission: Impossible movies, and those have always featured Tom Cruise front and center and have taken long breaks in-between installments.

[AndyDursin]

The one other thing that they've got going is that they have a very charismatic, appealing cast. Walker and Diesel worked well off each other, and they also managed to cultivate a strong "multi-ethnic"/international cast that appeals to all kinds of demographics and audiences worldwide -- without it feeling like they've had to push it down your throat.

My one disappointment is seeing the cute Jordana Brewster de-volve into an anorexic looking swivel stick. She needs to eat more than a salad, regrettably.

[Monterey Jack]

My one disappointment is seeing the cute Jordana Brewster de-volve into an anorexic looking swivel stick. She needs to eat more than a salad, regrettably.

Ah, "Connelly's Disease".

[Eric Paddon]

Recently watched the DeMille KING OF KINGS (original roadshow version-disc 1 of the Criterion set)-still one of DeMille's finest films with a performance by H. B. Warner as Jesus that is still my favorite. .........Only complaint-the score is just so-so with use of electronics and it just cries out for something orchestral and majestic. The Riesenfeld score on disc 2 actually works better and it is too bad someone could not have found a way to repurpose it.

I watched the shorter version this evening mostly because I prefer the Tikker organ score as more appropriate with its interpolation of some beloved hymns.

[Monterey Jack]

-Furious 7 (2015): 8/10

More of the same, still fun, will get slightly overrated due to the unfortunate passing of Paul Walker (the movie cuts together fairly seamlessly...if they CGI'd him at some points, it wasn't glaringly obvious) and the movie's admittedly touching tribute to him at the end. Kurt Russell is wasted (Stuntman Mike is in this, yet never gets behind the wheel of a car?), and The Rock gets sidelined too early. I don't know why James Wan directed this, though...it looks like it could have been made by any technically assured second-unit director (although I wonder if some of this is due to being forced to re-shoot large portions of it). Still, fans of the series will love it.

[AndyDursin]

BIG EYES
6/10

Tim Burton’s “change of pace” film – a total wipeout at last winter’s box-office – is a pleasant but bland outing that, at times, resembles a colorfully shot Lifetime movie.

Amy Adams stars as Margaret, a single mother artist who moves to San Francisco and quickly ends up married to Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), a fellow aspiring painter (or so it seems) who’s also a major realtor in town. Desperate to sell some of his artwork, Walter takes Margaret’s trademark works – mournful looking characters with pitch black, alien-like eyes – and sells them as his own. The plan works as the money begins to pour in, but even with Margaret willingly opting to stand back in the shadows in the “man’s world” of the 1950s and 60s, her conscience eventually pines for credit for her own creations.

“Big Eyes” is a watchable but very minor outing for Burton, who strays so far from his typical filmmaking approach here that the picture bears almost no distinctive stamp whatsoever of its director. It doesn’t help that the script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski is also devoid of much character insight, with Adams infusing her lead character with as much emotion as the material – which is content to chronicle Margaret’s plight on a simple surface level – allows. The result is a movie with one-dimensional, poorly drawn supporting players, from Danny Huston’s third-billed reporter (is there any reason why he’s narrating the film to begin with?) to Krysten Ritter as Margaret’s friend, Jason Schwartzman as a San Francisco gallery owner and Terence Stamp in a worthless turn as an NY Times art critic. It even extends to Waltz’s predictable performance as Walter – a variation, seemingly, on virtually every “charismatic villain” role we’ve seen Waltz essay in an English language film to date.

Scenes between Margaret and her daughter should have been given more time to percolate, the film’s climactic trial comes off as more perfunctory than inspiring, and even Danny Elfman’s score is unmemorable (it also strains to add a "light" tone to scenes which could've gone either way). It’s a disappointing film that just never comes together, with the superficiality extending to its limp portrayal of time and place.

Anchor Bay’s Blu-Ray includes a colorful 1080p (1.85) transfer of Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography, which certainly looks more like video-like than film in its presentation here. Two featurettes, a digital copy, and 5.1 DTS MA sound round out the release.

[Monterey Jack]

Bound (1996): 10/10



The Wachowski's one genuine classic, a sleek, seriously sexy crime caper brimming with flamboyant camerawork and terrific performances from leading femmes Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly and a spectacularly squirmy Joe Pantoliano. A crying shame they've disappeared up their own asses over the past twenty years...this is as great a directorial debut as I can think of, and to think of all that potential squandered for garbage like an obnoxious, live-action Speed Racer and Channing Tatum decked out like John Candy in Spaceballs (and played TOTALLY STRAIGHT) in Jupiter Ascending.

[mkaroly]

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS - 8/10. This is my guilty favorite Bond movie as this was the first of the Bond films I saw in the theater, so I cannot really be objective about it. It brings back a lot of memories of being a teen-ager; I still like the "edginess" (sorry - can't think of another term) of Dalton's performance. He gave Bond an emotional imbalance of sorts - smiling one minute, then holding in rage, then being cold and calculated. Dalton's face was kind of "long" though - that is not meant to be insulting, but he sometimes didn't look like Bond. It's hard to explain. But overall I still find his characterization of Bond to be refreshing post-Moore era.

One of the weaknesses of the film is in the villain, Brad Whittaker; he never felt like a threat to Bond, and there was no interaction between the two until the final moments of the movie. I missed the Bond-Bad Guy palaver, but in retrospect the Whittaker character was never threatening or strong enough to have that moment. Maryam d'Abo was HOT...lol...nothing in the world like a hot cellist (or a hot actress portraying a cellist), and she wasn't all that bad of a Bond girl (all things considered). The story was decent, but without a strong villain it was missing something. The replacement of Moneypenny was a bit jarring - even now (Barry Manilow pun intended) I fins the new girl out of place when I watch the film. Barry's music is outstanding and he went out with a bang, especially with the love theme. I love the rendetion by Chrissie Hynde - she and kd Lang have contributed two great vocal performances for Bond films. I'm all over the map with this one, but it still remains my guilty favorite Bond film and welcomed viewing.

[AndyDursin]

Paul and I talked about THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS recently. On the one hand, it's handcuffed a little by being "generically written" because they didn't know who was going to play Bond, so the movie didn't entirely play to Dalton's strengths (which LICENCE TO KILL did, though I realize the hardcore fan didn't care for it -- for me, I liked it, and it was an obvious precursor to the Craig movies in tone and style).

On the other hand, it's really the LAST of the "proper" Eon series. The last go-around for many Bond vets, especially John Barry, who wrote a wonderful score that is -- in many ways -- more a "John Barry score" than a "James Bond score," with its accent on romanticism and melody. Barry was -- unlike OCTOPUSSY (which I find to be positively geriatric by comparison, especially in its feeble Bond theme arrangement) and A VIEW TO A KILL (better, but still kind of by-the-numbers) -- clearly inspired by THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. It's a great score.

I like D'Abo -- she's amazingly hot -- and I like some of the individual set-pieces, though the tone varies from Moore-like one-liners to more of an "edgier" film, often at a moment's notice. The villain is, like you said Michael, weak and the climax is kinda boring -- but it goes that way with a lot of Bond movies, as we know. The destination is seldom as exciting as getting there.

Overall, I like the film a lot. In fact I'd rank it with the best "classic era" Bond films, so IMO, there's no need to feel guilty about it Michael

[mkaroly]

Thanks for making me not feel guilty Andy! Good points - I am looking forward to watching LTK again. I have been hard on it in the past, but in all honesty I have probably seen that Bond film more than the vast majority of them (GOLDFINGER and THUNDERBALL being the exceptions). Just thinking about it now, I agree that LTK did play to Dalton's strengths better than TLD. It seems as though in TLD that Dalton did not feel comfortable with the one-liners; the comedy was slightly different (for example, him arguing with Kara and saying he would absolutely not go back for the cello, then cutting to him sitting in the car, frustrated...or in the Afghan camp when the two of them are sneaking around and Bond has to turn the corner to grab her) and sparse enough to work in the places it was used I think.

[Paul MacLean]

I still like the "edginess" (sorry - can't think of another term) of Dalton's performance. He gave Bond an emotional imbalance of sorts - smiling one minute, then holding in rage, then being cold and calculated.

I like this film too, but I get the sense that Dalton and the filmmakers hadn't quite worked-out how to play this new Bond. As a result he is dour and menacing one minute, and having a ball on amusement park rides the next. Almost like two different people! I felt his characterization really hit its stride in Licence to Kill, and for me, it remains one of the great disappointments of movie history that Dalton did not return for more films.

The last go-around for many Bond vets, especially John Barry, who wrote a wonderful score that is -- in many ways -- more a "John Barry score" than a "James Bond score," with its accent on romanticism and melody.

This is one of my favorite Bond scores, and despite very "80s" touches like the drum machines, I felt it brought back a that raw energy in the action cues which had been missing from a lot of of Barry's Bond work since the 60s. It is also one of the most thematically broad and varied -- and inspired -- of his 007 scores.

[sprocket]

Another vote for Timothy Dalton as Bond. I liked him much better than Pierce Brosnan.

I really enjoyed the tanker truck chase, which I believe is LTK. More than anything else, the Bond brand is physical stunts and that chase is a doozy!

[Monterey Jack]

To this, day, I continue to defend and praise the Timothy Dalton films, which "rescued" the 007 brand from the tired, jokey, geriatric embarrassment of the later Roger Moore films...in The Living Daylights, there was tension again, mainly because for the first time since Lazenby they had an actor who could actually run and jump around without having to cut to a decades-younger stuntman every thirty seconds. And as for the common complaint that Dalton lacked "charm" or whatever, I've always disagreed with it...it's a terse charm, to be sure, but its odd that so many love Daniel Craig in the role without acknowledging that Dalton was doing the same thing twenty years earlier. Licence To Kill is commonly looked down upon as "not a James Bond film" (with it's severely late-80's Miami Vice/Joel Silver style), but in reality it has more Fleming in it than any Bond film in years, albeit scraps of various Fleming novels and short stories stitched together. It also has one of my favorite lines from a Bond villain (in response to Felix Leiter asking where his wife is), when Benicio Del Toro's henchman croons, "Don't worry...we give her a nice, honeymooooooooooooooooooooooooooon."

And, up until Naomie Harris, the Dalton films had the prettiest Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss)...shame she was given barely one scene in Licence To Kill. No offense to Lois Maxwell, but she was looking very matronly by the end of the Moore era, and she should have been replaced years earlier.



It is a crying shame that Dalton never got to make more than two...he and Lazenby fell into the unfortunate popular assumption that, just because they had the shortest tenures in the role, that they were somehow inadequate or unpopular, when in fact their films were still huge hits (granted, LTK tanked in U.S. theaters, but in terms of worldwide box office, it made tons of cash). As popular as the Brosnan films were at the time, they don't hold up especially well, and their commercial success is undermined by how ridiculously expensive they became by the end.

[Eric Paddon]

I guess it's up to me to take a stand against the Dalton gang?

I can't accept the argument that Dalton "rescued" the series since TLD did not duplicate the box office peak we saw with "Octopussy" a few years earlier and we all know how much LTK tanked at the box office is the US. LTK was a perfect example of what happened by giving in too much to the Fleming "purists" (Raymond Benson) IMO. By trying so hard to rub it in the face of the audience that this was the anti-Roger Moore, it ended up being something I couldn't have any fun watching. I'll still take Moonraker and Man With The Golden Gun over LTK any day of the week. TLD I might be open to revisiting again more because of the carryover elements that required Dalton to adapt in part that we weren't seeing in LTK. But IMO audiences were not missing Dalton in the slightest for that five year period between LTK and Goldeneye. They may not have disliked him, but they hardly IMO embraced him. Caroline Bliss IMO was also all wrong as Moneypenny. I understood why it was time for Lois to go but seeing Bliss in glasses was the kind of stereotype about Moneypenny that Lois had fought hard against when she made the part her own and to me it was a big step backward. I much preferred Samantha Bond for a more fresh update of the character.

I will agree though that Moore should have hung it up after "Octopussy" and spared us "View To A Kill" which was a mistake on all levels. With "Octopussy" he would have gone out on top in IMO the best Bond film overall that he did.

[mkaroly]

By trying so hard to rub it in the face of the audience that this was the anti-Roger Moore, it ended up being something I couldn't have any fun watching.

I am not sure they were trying purposefully to rub it in the face of the audience that Dalton was the anti-Roger Moore; at least I never thought that was the case. But I did like that Dalton was willing to reinterpret the character and play more to the edgier side of Bond after the Moore era. Personally I did like some of Moore's films but it was clearly time for a change in direction, and I liked that they embraced the side of Bond they did in Dalton's outings.