The 90's Movie Theater Experience

If you ever wanted to know what it was like watching a movie at the theater in the 90s, watch this trailer. The grainy flicker on the picture. But mostly the sound. I think it had something to do with early Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS and other digital compression technologies being used. Or maybe it was the sound mix done by the studio itself. But there's this unmistakable, nearly inaudible dirty tonal echo or reverb that you could hear in theaters at the time. I remember Jurassic Park, Beethoven, Twister, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Star Trek VI, and so many others all had this touch.

The closest I've come to recently was Tarantino's roadshow for The Hateful Eight a year ago. He sent out a 70mm film projector for that one. So the picture quality was similar. But the sound was not the same, as they used the existing modern digital speakers that were built into the Quail Springs theater.

RIP Jonathan Demme

You perfected breaking the rule of actors not looking into the camera. And your movies were stunning for it.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Philadelphia (1993)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

I must say I was not impressed.

I did not think Nate Parker did as spectacular a job as Sundance would have lead us to believe. The characters were basically caricatures and uninteresting. The storyline was pure melodrama. Basically a rehashed morality play with heavy handed villains and heroes, easily identifiable. It was chock full of used tropes and predictable plot movements. There was nowhere in the movie where I was surprised by a characters actions or thought, "well that's interesting."

His pacing was quite slow throughout. Except during the climactic battle sequences which he seemed to rush through instead of building up to much of an extent. It was more or less, skirmish, big battle, oh wait it's all over now.

The only things I really thought was interesting about the film was the ending sequence involving a transition to the civil war era, and an early scene that mirrors today's police stops.

To have rewritten history as severely as Parker did, I would have expected more of a dramatic payoff for the factual sacrifice. Instead it was more of the same. 12 Years A Slave was a far more powerful and fascinating film for this kind of material. But Steve McQueen is a far more capable filmmaker.

Parker has done one thing with this movie as far as I am concerned. He has proven himself a capable director of the middling film.

3/10.

The Signal (2014)

The Signal had a whole bunch of sci-fi tropes that we've all seen before many times. It had potential. Good effects, acting and direction. But the story just wasn't there. It kept you interested via carrot on a stick mysteries, but ultimately it went nowhere. The ending was cheap and unfulfilling. Events that directed you one way only ended up being exposed as plot holes later on. Goes to show no matter how much gloss you put on a poor or even mediocre script, it still wont make a very good movie.

4/10.

Multi-Movie Netflix Roundup

Here's a bunch of reviews of movies I watched on Netflix this month.

THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (2013)

Pretty good low budget space zombies movie. Good action. A-list actors. But a story we've seen before. It was done quite a bit better than previous iterations however. Not on the quality level of a Prometheus or anything. But an entertaining evening nonetheless.
6/10.

AGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Couldn't get past the first 5 minutes of this direct to video garbage. Horrid acting. Just horrid.
2/10.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2011)

Took this one up on a friend's recommendation. Turned it off after an hour. Waaay too artsy for me. Straight narrative is not involved in this film. Jumps all around. No subtlety.
3/10.

IN THE NAME OF THE KING 2: TWO WORLDS (2011)

Thought I'd give Uwe Boll a chance despite my better judgement. Dolph Lundgren gets transported back in time to medieval ages. Horrid. Couldn't get past the first 20 minutes. Bad acting. Shaky camera work. Bad all around.
2/10.

AGE OF UPRISING: THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL KOHLHAAS (2013)
(French w/ English Subtitles)

Wonderful! A Quiet, somewhat slow film about a merchant in 1500's France who rebels against the local Barony. The authenticity really transports you into the time period. Mads Mikkelson is always great, especially in Medieval stuff like this (think Valhalla Rising). My only beef with the film is about midway through with the appearance of a priest the dialog and story turns allegorical, which I imagine the entire film is supposed to be. Good and evil, rule of law, etc. etc. All those big ideas that men wrestle with through the ages. This film is different from the usual fare. High caliber.
8/10.

WORLD WITHOUT END (2012)
(8 Episode Miniseries)

Based on Ken Follet's novel which was itself a sequel to his Pillars Of The Earth. This miniseries doesn't disappoint. Not Game of Thrones Level, but it is good drama, intrigue and action nonetheless. It basically follows the happenings of the Late Medieval city of Kingsbridge, England against the backdrop of the 100 Years War. I've read that the characters were written with a much more liberal socio-political mindset than people at the time, but it keeps you rooting for certain characters against others. I would really recommend this to any GoT fan who is waiting for the next season of that show to start.
7/10.

FULL METAL JACKET (1987)

Up until this point I never had seen this film all the way through! Only the first half set at boot camp, which is frankly, the best part of the film. Basically a Vietnam War movie, it follows Matthew Modine from getting drafted and into the war. I'd consider this one of director Stanley Kubrick's weaker films, because it doesn't really hold itself together through the entire length consistently. Kind of meanders in the second half. Still, it's a classic for R. Lee Ermey's performance alone. Fun trivia: when writing the film, Kubrick sat down with Ermey and had him spout dialogue he would have used during his tenure as an actual drill instructor. Most of his resulting film dialog is simple transcription.
6/10.

TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (1949)

Classic WWII movie starring Gregory Peck as bomber pilot general. Couldn't finish it. Too jingoistic and old way of thinking for me. Stopped it after an hour.
4/10.

POLICE STORY: LOCKDOWN (2013)
(Chinese w/ English subtitles)

Jackie Chan action/drama. But not his usual style. Likely due to a different director helming the film. Jackie plays a serious police captain who gets held hostage by a psychotic club owner with the rest of his patrons. Had more of an Oldboy feel to it, rather than Rumble In The Bronx. Mostly psychological mind games, but plenty of kung-fu action too. It was a pretty enjoyable film. Good lazy Saturday fare.
8/10.

Elysium (2013)

Elysium was not quite as good as District 9. District 9 was wholly original and unique, full of fresh ideas and moral narrative. Elysium while full of similar moral narrative, also had the misfortune of having the Hollywood gloss applied to its story. Cheap manipulations of emotion via climax and score, not to mention unambiguous victims and oppressors. Good vs. Evil is ok (in this case the Good being the poor and the Evil being the wealthy), but I would have liked to have seen further elucidation on the character and motives of the inhabitants of Elysium. A good morality tale overall, but not as nuanced and detailed as District 9 was. It wrapped up too nicely, too happily, too Hollywood.

My other beef was the use of my old nemesis the shaky-cam. I don't recall such blur in District 9. Only the shaky-cam can take intense action and turn it into a frustrating episode of vertigo, and unfortunately it was on high display in Elysium.

Other than those two beefs, it was a good film. Neil Blomkamp has made another quality entry into the science-fiction pantheon.

8/10.

Pacific Rim (2013)

One of the worst movies I've seen in the theater in a while. I almost got up and left, but I paid ten bucks to see it. I wouldn't have missed much if I had. The acting was the only decent thing about the film. The visual effects were muddy, and for some reason every battle scene was blurred by rain. The respect of the laws of physics was non-existent. And the story, ho-boy the story. While there were a couple of original touches, for the most part it was rehashed cliches. Del Toro even went so far as to steal plot points from not only Independence Day, but also the dreadful Emmerich remake of Godzilla from the 1990's. The rousing speeches all sounded familiar. The conflicts between characters had been done before in every other movie in history. It was overall a very dumb, very boring, very noisy rehash of pretty much every other film of it's genre. I'm only giving it as high a rating as I am because the actors were all quite exceptional in working with what they were given. 3/10.

Argo (2012)

Argo was awesome. Intense and suspenseful to the end. It illustrates how the power of film crosses all boundaries, particularly in the interrogation scene. And in spite of it's historical inaccuracies present in the movie, Affleck's choice to have the players and scenery physically resemble the real thing was a nice touch that few movies portray. 8/10.

Fast & Furious 6 (2012)

Fast & Furious 6 was a lot of fun. It was dumb, cliched, and unrealistic. But as long as you suspend your disbelief, suspend it waaaayy up there, your gonna have a good time. 6/10.

Also, thanks to reddit I found a picture that sums up the whole movie nicely...

Donovan's Atlantis in Goodfellas

Scorsese is the master of the soundtrack. How anyone would think to match Donovan's Atlantis to a scene involving Joe Pesci and Robert Deniro beating Frank Vincent to a pulp is a mystery, but it works magically: Here's the song. Here's the scene.

Mazes and Monsters (TV 1982)

Mazes and Monsters is one terrible made for TV movie. Supposedly about Tom Hanks going crazy while playing Dungeons and Dragons (though they couldn't use the copyrighted name cause its basically one of those "D&D is the devil" stories), its terribly written, cornily acted, and the visual quality is basically shit. Tom Hanks is his usual genial self, but he doesn't have much to work with. I cant believe I used to think this movie was good... of course I was 9 last time I saw it. But it still holds a special place in my heart, so I can't give it too low a rating. 5/10.

The villainous Stephen from Django Unchained

Django Unchained was a painfully/joyously cathartic film. A true masterpiece. But I would like to take a moment to comment as to why I feel Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen was a truly villainous villain, brilliantly written by Tarantino and utterly inhabited by Jackson.

To start with, DiCaprio's Calvin Candie was utterly villainous himself, but he's your standard "petulant child emperor" character. Like Commodus from Gladiator he is bored with his existence and only cruelty and domineering over others brings him pleasure. This kind of sadism, while utterly villainous, is a different flavor from Stephen's twisted villainy.

Stephen was utterly villainous for the following reasons:

One, he was a conniving, plotting, Shylock-like weasel of a simpering villain. Devising and sneaking around doing his evil masters bidding. The only character that comes to mind for true comparison is Shakespearian courtier Iago from Othello, or Iago the parrot from Alladin for the pop culture referral.

Two, he is a manipulative villain, always putting ideas of cruelty in Candie's head. When Candie admonishes him or dismisses his intentions, he makes them even sweeter with his devil's tongue to the point that he has become the master of this household of horror.

Three, and this is most prescient, he is a traitor. A traitor to his race. Candie was evil, but his evil was aligned with the one systemic norm of the time, racism. I don't believe Stephen even identifies himself as black anymore. He goes so far as to maintain the brutal household's financial affairs, to personally oversee the torture of his fellow slaves in far crueler methods and durations than his master, and upon identifying opportunities overlooked by his master to practice cruelty upon his brothers and sisters, he happily guides Candie's hand to the literal whip.

Lastly, he's a player hater, plain and simple, through and through. Taking joy in the cutting down of others to or below his level is his sustenance. Take Clifton Powell's Chauncy from Menace II Society. Multiply it times 9,999, you're getting closer to Steven.

So it is with all these villainous traits in mind that we experience the utter jumping-up-and-down-hand-clapping joy in witnessing that side of violence that Tarantino calls "the cathartic fun of violence"

Assault Girls (2009)

Assault Girls was lame. I was expecting a live action anime full of stylized action and cool visuals. Instead I got a weakly made art film involving cheap CGI and almost no plot. Do not rent. 3/10.

Serenity (2005)

Watched Serenity for the second time. Last I saw it was... 7 years ago (?) when it came out on DVD. Liked it better this time around, maybe cause I was more invested having watched part of the series now. I always liked Wash and Jayne, probably because Tudyk and Baldwin are two of my favorite character actors. But I appreciated Mal much more this time around knowing more of his backstory. I still hold that Nathan Fillion is too likable a person to convincingly play the tough as nails take no shit captain he did through most of the series without coming off like an irredeemably dislikable character. He just doesn't have it in him to convincingly be that kind of character. But I think he and Whedon found the right balance in Serenity to pull off the gruff captain with the heart of gold. And Chiwetel Ejiofor is awesome as always. Quite enjoyable outing this time around. 7/10.

One thing though. What is Joss Whedon's fetish with killer-tough bad girls all about? Buffy, River, Echo, Akima, it's like I can hear his eyes rolling into the back of his head writing these chicks. lol.

The Devil's Rock (2011)

Watched The Devil's Rock on Netflix. A New Zealand horror film set in WWII on one of the channel islands off the coast of France. It takes place on the eve of D-Day and involves a Kiwi SAS officer, a Nazi SS occult officer and a succubus from hell. Very well done for a low budget horror film. Wonderfully atmospheric and occult accurate. Well acted with good make up effects by WETA. I really enjoyed it all around. 8/10.

The Elephant Man (1980)

This morning I watched David Lynch's The Elephant Man for only the second time in my life. I clearly remember watching it when I was 8 or 9, and it was such a powerful experience that the emotions it evoked have staid with me all these years. It is perhaps the saddest movie ever made, yet vividly illustrates the beauty of human compassion. I think that schools should show children this Academy Award nominated film. Every human being should see it. 10/10.

The Ice Storm (1997)

The Ice Storm is one of those films like American Beauty that's so deep and nuanced on so many levels that you feel swamped by all the meaning and hidden truths and you're sure you'll never be able to decipher it all... but you're wiser for the experience. 8/10.

DC Comics Animated One-offs

Last week I watched five of Warner Brothers Animation Studio's releases of DC Comics based stand-alone films, that is, storylines independant of any WB/DC television series.

Batman: Under The Red Hood (2010), based on the Batman comics storyline of the same name, was about as good as any live action movie. Well animated with a killer script, with top notch voice acting to boot. I remember when Batman: The Animated Series changed the game of cartoons. Nice to see the franchise still hasn't lost it's touch. 9/10.

Justice League: Doom (2012) was enjoyable as well. Batman is one wary dude. Also, Batman is correct. When Superman says "Maybe I can move the Earth's orbit out of the path of the flare." The right reply is "Even if I had a week I couldn't explain all the reasons that wouldn't work." 7/10.

Superman Batman: Apocalypse (2010). I ended up quite liking this in spite of Kara Zor-El's annoying affect in the first half. Character introduction and development, cartoon babes, Batman being a cold badass. Plus, it had some of the best animated fight choreography I've seen in an American release. 7/10.

Superman vs. The Elite (2012). Was worth watching for the sole purpose of witnessing Superman's defense of why he never kills anyone. His illustrative example at the climax of the movie is well worth beholding. As a friend of mine said, "It... it's somethin'!" 6/10.

Batman: Year One (2011). The animated version of Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name was top notch. Briskly paced, fabulously voice-acted, and an animation style that remained true to the source. However, as an aside, I kept comparing it to the Nolan films, to which there's really no equal. In my opinion Nolan took the best parts from all of the Batman storylines and added his own genius touches and ideas to make The Dark Knight trilogy the ultimate Batman story. Regardless, as a stand alone or in that context, I happily give Batman: Year One 8/10.

Die Hard (1988)

So I watched Die Hard for the first time in years in preparation for going to see the new one on Tuesday. Man, it seems pretty dated now. Compared to the action films of today it's paced pretty slow and is awful quiet in a lot of parts. Still a classic though. 8/10.

The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Tommy Lee Jones' directorial pacing was a little terse, and the non-linear narrative of the first half was pointless. But he sure coached some damn fine performances out of his cast. Barry Pepper was phenomenal, and even the usually dead January Jones emoted well. 7/10.