Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - 4.5/5
I wish it was longer. The only reason it isn’t 5/5 is because I feel like most shots could’ve held a bit longer. More atmosphere and longer beats would’ve benefited it.
It’s amazing it turned out as well as it did. It was going to go straight to video, and WB changed their minds at the last minute. The production values suffer a tiny bit (compare it to the TMS gloss of Return of the Joker), but you could still make a case it’s the best Batman movie of all.
Oh geez, I have seen Rashomon too, it slipped my mind earlier. I’ve been trying to find a good time to watch Seven Samurai for a while, but the three-hour running time makes it difficult. Kagemusha isn’t on Filmstruck, but it looks like I can snag a used copy of the blu-ray for twelve bucks on Amazon, so that’s happening.
The 3.5 hours of Seven Samurai really breeze by.
Lawless- Another John Hillcoat-Nick Cave collaboration, with a top-tier cast. LeBouf tries mightily to break away from being typecast. Gorgeously, gorgeously shot (If 35mm is foretold to die, may all digitally shot films look half as good as this), it’s so pretty. Sadly, it’s full of repugnant people whom I don’t like very much, but the rich period detail is fun, and the actors are having a blast. Hardy and Pierce are positively feral, and the film is full of Hillycoat’s brutal but artfully shot violence. Short of greatness and perhaps ultimately slight, but it is pretty. Good God, is it pretty though.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown- Basically a feature-length episode of Unsolved Mysteries, like most little exploitation movies, the pleasures are small things that probably were things the filmmakers weren’t even aiming for. The Arkansas atmosphere of the 70s looks nice and the almost documentary-like sense of place. And of course that beautiful grain you get on 35mm film, the movie has a nice sense of place. But it’s basically just a slasher movie when all is said and done, mostly special because it was unavailable for so long. Decent.
Even the greatest films ever tend to age, whether because of their specific ties to the times in which they were made, their political incorrectness, changing social mores, cultural ideas, endless imitators, or the fact that in the age of endless post-modern pop culture references, almost every film is chopped up and spit out, or any number of factors. And then there’s The Maltese Falcon. A glittering, ageless gem, as juicy today as it was 75 years ago. Rich, almost tactile atmosphere, dialogue that Tarantino would borrow from heavily, superb performances, and a surprisingly dark tone, with the ever iconic and brilliant Humphrey Bogart at the center. Even in an age of flippant nihilism and fragmented culture, The Maltese Falcon is as rich and mysterious as ever. The stuff that dreams are made of indeed.
Pitch Black- Saying a movie is "a good Alien ripoff is the very definition of faint praise, but in this case, it’s actually a hell of a compliment. A terrific B-movie with the heart of a classic John Carpenter flick, David Twohy’s sci-fi thriller is an effective sci-fi horror flick with elements of many genre movies past, but it hinges on a terrific high-concept premise and a role that perfectly utilizes Vin Diesel’s monosyllabic presence. A great premise, a sexy heroine, good monsters, nice FX work, and superb nighttime cinematography from Mad Max DP David Eggby. Good stuff, and a nice reminder that B-movie isn’t quite dead yet.
The Chronicles of Riddick- A woefully misguided sequel to Pitch Black that tried to turn the whole thing into a big Star Wars-style space opera, but the thin screenplay doesn’t work when you stretch something so confined onto a wider canvas. Lots of already dated FX, a bunch of furious action scenes which don’t really work, and a bunch of babbling about a mythology that doesn’t make much sense. A well-designed but turgid misfire.
Riddick- A back-to-basics return to form for the franchise that probably shouldn’t be a franchise, this gets things back to the B-movie high-concept roots. A bunch of foul-mouthed space mercenaries land on a planet with Riddick and a bunch of monsters, much chaos ensues. Surprisingly scrappy fun, and throwback to the 80s when these flick were R-rated.
A Perfect Getaway-Another Twohy flick, once again hinging on a nice high concept. Good performances, but one the film turns its cards over, it basically becomes another violent slasher flick. Still, Twohy has that proper B-movie swagger, and there’s fun to be had.
The Arrival- If you can get past the fact that they’ve cast a surprisingly effective Charlie Sheen as an astronomer and some rather glaring plot holes, this is another fun Twohy B-movie, which really makes the most of a limited budget and pulpy premise. Got it for free in SD registering for Ultraviolet.
Tell No One- Rather mediocre French thriller from a pulpy Harlan Coben novel that got glowing reviews. If it was in English, I don’t think it would’ve. Apart from some sexual frankness that you wouldn’t find a in a movie on this side of the pond, it’s not hugely different from a run-of-the-mill thriller here. OK, and good performances, but the comparisons to Hitchcock are a little baffling.
Henry V- Kenneth Branagh’s extraordinarily confident directorial debut, with the young actor in his prime. Easily one of the best films of Shakespeare, and probably the most fully-realized of all of his Bard adaptions, without some of the Hollywood casting which would show up later. Robust, exciting, and accessible, great stuff. And a great battle scene too.
Ocean’s Eleven- Sleek, cool, laid-back, star-powered, old-fashioned heist movie from Steven Soderberg. A very lightweight movie by design, but very light on its feet, and lots of fun, the stars are obviously having a blast, and you can’t blame them, and you should too.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi- And I thought that JJ Abrams was an eager-to-please fanboy. Rian Johnson’s new installment starts fast and moves faster thereafter, bombarding the audience with nonstop dialogue and VFX. But whether you like George Lucas or not, the fact is that he once did things which were stylistically new; Disney sequel trilogy too often reeks of empty nostalgia. There are good things scattered about; a terrific central performance from Mark Hamill as an embittered Luke Skywalker, some nifty visuals (Kicking up salt, a cool lightsaber kill), but the film is way too long and feels a bit too desperate to please. Still, there’s fun to be had; Ridley remains an engaging new lead, and some of Johnson’s set pieces, though occasionally exhausting, have some fun zip. But it feels like a little too much of something that’s only OK.