Tag Archives: 1990’s

#162- Princess Mononoke

Quick recap: After Ashitaka is attacked by a demon, he goes in search of a cure. While on his journey, he becomes involved with a war between the animals of the forest and a mining town.

Is it too much to ask for a two hour movie with just these guys?

Is it too much to ask for a two hour movie with just these guys?

Fun (?) fact: This is probably common knowledge, but Neil Gaiman was the one to adapt the dialogue so that English speakers could better understand what was going on. Is there anything that guy can’t do?

'I know Neil Gaiman needs to be an animal, but how white can we portray him?' 'SO white. As white as you can possibly get.'

‘I know Neil Gaiman needs to be an animal, but how white can we portray him?’
‘SO white. As white as you can possibly get.’

My thoughts: I had no idea what to expect going into this since my knowledge of anime is about as stereotypically American as you can get (translation- I’ve seen Cowboy Bebop and parts of Inuyasha thanks to late night Adult Swim). That’s not to say I have anything against the genre. There is just so much to choose from that I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’m not sure Princess Mononoke was a good starting point but that’s not because it was a bad movie.

First, let me admit that as much as I tried, I kept being reminded of FernGully, even though the two aren’t that similar. I guess it was the battle between nature versus industry that led me down that path, although-side note- FernGully doesn’t hold up after all these years. I watched it a couple of years ago and it brought back some great nostalgia but that’s about it. Princess Mononoke is leaps and bounds much more complex than that movie and I would venture to say more complex than most animated films. I was really impressed with how much the film required me to concentrate and didn’t just tell me how I was supposed to feel. My thoughts toward the characters changed with each scene and even at the end, I wasn’t sure how I felt. I won’t give away the ending but I will say that if you are looking for a feel good film for the entire family, this ain’t it.

also not kid appropriate because of this scene. Pictured is a big fat NOPE.

also not kid appropriate because of this scene. Pictured is a big fat NOPE.

My one complaint, and I’m not even sure it is one, is that I felt like some of the movie was lost in translation. I understand that there are words in the Japanese language that are almost impossible to translate but the dialogue just seemed so simple compared to the plot I tried to follow. Is there a version I could watch with subtitles? I’m not even sure that would fix anything. The American voices also threw me off more than I expected (Billy Bob Thornton? Really?) and they didn’t seem to fit at all with the characters. I guess I was hoping for something a little more authentic to the original and not so Disneyfied.

Final review: 4/5. The animation alone is worth the score and is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen but the theme also impressed me. I feel like I would need to watch it again to really understand what was going on.

Up next: Kandahar

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#159- Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Quick recap: The Terminator is back! But this time he is here to protect instead of, well, terminate. Along the way he learns what it means to be human and how to love. Awww.

Beeee........Goooood, E.T phone home.

          Beeee……..Goooood, E.T phone home.

Fun (?) fact: Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah Connor, has an identical twin sister who helped out in scenes where two Sarahs were needed. Identical twins seems kind of a cop out special effect when James Cameron could have just Parent Trapped it. That’s totally a thing now, by the way, Parent Trapping.

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My thoughts: Reflecting on my previous Terminator post, I seem a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. It felt like mindless entertainment, maybe a notch above other action movies, but nothing spectacular. Therefore, it pleased me greatly to see that Terminator 2 is a much better film than its original, a feat very hard to pull off. According to IMDb, Terminator 2 is the only sequel in history to win Academy awards when the previous film hadn’t even been nominated.

To start off with, the special effects, which impressed me last time, did so even more this time around. The constant explosions and walls of fire didn’t do much for me, but I loved the liquid metal structure of the T-1000. I kept expecting him to turn into Alex Mack at some point, but still very cool. The nuclear sequence was realistic enough to get a thumbs up from nuclear testing facilities, something we all strive to obtain some day. There weren’t very many ‘scary’ scenes, but that one stuck with me for awhile.

another creepy scene

                            another creepy scene

Edward Furlong, who played John Connor annoyed me the entire time he was on screen, and not just because of his voice. He was like the real life version of Bart Simpson but without any funny lines. His relationship with the Terminator also weirded me out a little and reminded me of that kid in Shane, especially the ending when he pleads for him not to go. I’ll cut him some slack though because it is pretty awesome to have your own pet Terminator to love and care for, who follows you around, protects you and does whatever you want. Replace Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Golden Retriever and you’d have the top heartwarming family movie of the year. It was really hard to see how this brat turned into the leader of the revolution but that was sort of the point, I think. Sending the Terminator back to protect John Connor set in motion all of the experiences he needed to become the hero later on in life. Having not watched any other movie in this series I don’t know if the war still happened but I’m guess it did. That makes everything even more remarkable, all the things these characters went through and yet failed to stop the future.

Final review: 4/5. Definitely an improvement from the pervious film, but I wouldn’t call it a favorite.

Up next: Sullivan’s Travels

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#150- The Player

Quick recap: Griffin Mill is a Hollywood studio executive who is sent death threats from an unknown writer he passed over for a script. Being the jerk that he is, the suspects are endless.

2014-06-04

Fun (?) fact: None of the celebrity cameos were written into the script. Basically, they just showed up, improvised their lines and got put in the film. Julia Roberts, among others, did her cameo for free.

Player2

My thoughts: Oh, Robert Altman, why must you toy so with my emotions? First, you bring me The Long Goodbye, arguably one of my favorite finds on this list but then you disappoint me so deeply with Nashville. My wounds are still healing from that heartbreak. When I saw that The Player was filled to the top with celebrities, my heart sank once again and I longed for the wit that was Elliott Gould.

The beginning of The Player was a hot mess, even more than Nashville with its 30 plus subplots. It was filmed in one long take with actors galore discussing ‘Hollywood’ stuff, most of which went too fast for me to get. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes into the movie that I realized Tim Robbins was the main character. In fact, for at least 2/3 of the film it’s easy to get lost in the sea of characters and to forget that there really is a plot. Most of the time it just felt like Altman was bragging about all of the cool friends he has.

Tim Robbins’ performance was perfect and I’m a little surprised why so many people look to Shawshank Redemption as his best, when it is clearly this movie. No one can play asshole quite like he can. I enjoyed seeing him slip further and further into the role of slimy Hollywood studio executive until he was completely gone.

The only saving grace for this film came from the most unlikeliest of places: Lyle Lovett. Yes, THAT Lyle Lovett.

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He wasn’t onscreen too often, but when he did appear, I loved every minute. I should note here that The Player is considered a comedy, a fact I find most surprising since I didn’t find much to laugh at. I think part of the issue is that the comedy relies  so heavily on the cameos, most of which I either didn’t recognize or care about. It kind of reminded me of watching Golden Girls as a kid. Most of the references were so specific to the time period in which the show took place that it took away from the hilarity a bit. Lyle Lovett, however, kept me interested until the very end. Someone should make a movie starring just him in this role. I’d pay good money to see that.

Final review: 2/5. I get the larger theme that this is a parody of what goes on in Hollywood, but since I’m not a studio executive, the humor was lost on me.

Up next: a Ferris Bueller Quote-A-Long at the Drafthouse!

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#145- Four Weddings and a Funeral

Quick recap:  Hugh Grant plays Charles, a man who, during the course of attending several weddings (3 in fact), falls in love. Will the fourth wedding be his own, or will it in fact be his funeral?

BAM. I just made this movie infinitely more interesting than it actually was. EVEN BETTER. The funeral could’ve been his own and then he could’ve had a zombie marriage. Zombie marriages are the best kind of marriages, you know.

Don't let the quirkiness fool you. This movie is in fact quite boring.

Don’t let the quirkiness fool you. This movie is in fact quite boring.

Fun (?) fact: Hugh Grant, the star of the film, hated Four Weddings and a Funeral while filming. Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all.

That would've been nice.

That would’ve been nice.

My thoughts: It’s really no surprise that the ‘romantic comedy’ genre is one of my least favorite. Everything is so sappy and there are too many scenes that try too hard to be funny. Still, despite knowing better, I had hope that Four Weddings and a Funeral would somehow, some way, not completely suck.

This movie did not completely suck. Yay! But only because there was so much wrong with this movie that it kept me entertained the entire time. Boo! So here are the things that irked me most about the film:

1) Who the hell are all these people? I spent way more time trying to figure out who was related to whom only to later realize they were all just a big group of friends with that one really old guy in the center of it all. A little bit of a back story would’ve been nice .

2) Everything was entirely too predictable. Granted, the title already gave away that there would in fact be 4 weddings and 1 funeral, but I didn’t realize that that was the entire movie. It at least helped me know that when I got to the 4th wedding, the torture was almost over.

3) Stop doing that, Hugh Grant! All of it- your bumbling, ‘aw,shucks’ attitude, the way you continually put your glasses on, only to take them off OVER AND OVER AGAIN, your over the top ‘poor pitiful me’ puppy dog looks whenever you are sad. Just stop.

4) The jokes. I felt like I was watching a SNL parody of how stupid romantic comedies are and how they put in the most generic not funny gags. For example: the bridesmaid who walks down the aisle with her underwear showing, the priest who officiates his first wedding and mixes up everything ( he says Holy Goat instead of Holy Ghost. Comedy gold!), the main character has to sit with his exes at the reception and it is so awkward. It was like the writers were promised pizza if they completed the script in time, so they just threw in a bunch of generic stuff and called it a day.

It would be cruel for me to go on, so I’ll stop for now. After all, I was the girl who laughed throughout A Walk to Remember while everyone was sobbing into their popcorn buckets. It’s just not the movie for me.

Final review: 2/5.

Up next: Steamboat Bill, Jr.

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