All posts by Beau

Movies

Stephen Herek

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Stephen Herek’s has had an interesting career. Most of his early movies were well-known and widely disliked, or at best tolerated. Most of his recent movies have been straight-to-video. But then he had one masterpiece in the middle of his career that doesn’t belong with any of these movies. I don’t know what to make of that. Did he luck into it? Does he have the talent but is content with doing safe and forgettable movies?

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: A pretty cool movie when I was nine years old, but the humor has little depth now as an adult. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter find a phone booth that travels through time and with the help of George Carlin, get a bunch of historical figures (including Genghis Khan, Abraham Lincoln, and Napoleon) to come back to the future with them to, I don’t know, vouch for their bodaciousness. Yeah, totally bogus.

Grade: D

The Mighty Ducks: Cheesy and ridiculous, but at times charming and funny, The Mighty Ducks is the one movie where nearly every Minnesotan knows somebody who was in it. Emilio Estevez, a workaholic, gets a DUI and as his probation, must coach a rag-tag bunch of kids who play hockey poorly. Similar to The Bad News Bears in that the bad kids become serviceable, and the coach lands a couple of ringers that do most of the work. Not as good as that movie, as there are more caricatures, including the sneeringly evil opposing coach (who, incidentally, starred in the Bad News Bears sequel). Also, the heartfelt moments are too choreographed. Despite this, I enjoy it whenever I come across it.

Grade: C-

Mr. Holland’s Opus: It’s funny to go from a movie that does the dramatic moments so poorly to a movie that is absolutely superb and evoking genuine, non-manipulative tears. Richard Dreyfuss plays a well-liked high school music teacher who struggles on the home front with having a deaf son and on the work front with the reality that the school is going to cut the music program. Nearly every moment of this movie feels real and Dreyfuss puts in possibly the best performance of his career. I’ve seen this several times now and cry like a fool every time.

Grade: A-

Other Stephen Herek Movies You May Have Seen

Critters
Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead
The Three Musketeers
101 Dalmatians
Holy Man
Life or Something Like It
Man of the House
Picture This
Dead Like Me: Life After Death
Into the Blue 2: The Reef
The Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice
The Chaperone

Movies

Irvin Kershner

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Robocop 2: Just a brutal sequel that I don’t think any director could have saved.The last movie Kershner directed, and I may have given up too after this trash. Awkward, poor dialogue, confusing character motivations. Most sequels don’t need to be made but few are as miserable as this.

Grade: F

The Flim-Flam Man: A fun con-artist movie starring George C. Scott. Nowhere near The Sting in terms of plot or acting, but charming and funny through and through.

Grade: C+

Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back: Right before he wrote the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lawrence Kasdan wrote the script for Empire. It was his first script and a pretty good debut. Lucas gave the reins to Kershner and he directed the best movie in the series. The love triangle between Han, Leia, and Luke is a bit uncomfortable, but the action is one creative scene after another. From the imperial walkers to the asteroid belt to Cloud City to Luke’s showdown with Vader, there is little time to relax. Yoda makes his first appearance; he could have been a complete disaster but the puppeteer does an excellent job of giving the Jedi master pathos and an aura of wisdom. The end of the movie is a series of powerful cliffhangers. By the time I was old enough to watch this, the sequel had already been made. I couldn’t have imagined waiting three years to see how this wrapped up.

Grade: A+

Other Movies by Irvin Kershner You May Have Seen

Never Say Never Again
Eye of Laura Mars
Raid on Entebbe
The Return of a Man Called Horse
S*P*Y*S
Up the Sandbox
Loving
A Fine Madness

Movies

George Lucas

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Lucas isn’t too bad of a story creator. After all, Raiders of the Lost Ark was mostly his idea, though no doubt having Spielberg and Kasdan around helped. But the guy can’t write good dialogue and other than the occasional special effect, the guy can’t direct a scene very well either. Granted, Lucas has almost no experience with directing outside of the Star Wars movies. The guy is obviously very skilled at surrounding himself with the right people, creating a multi-billion dollar cash cow. But when he takes full creative control of anything, it’s usually bad news.

Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones: The awfulness of this movie can be proven by one of the worst lines in movie history, also written by our friend George Lucas. “I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.” Yes, an adult wrote that line. I’d be willing to wager that 90% of the Star Wars fan fiction has more competent writing than this movie does. A terrible bridge between the other two prequels, Attack of the Clones is cringe-worthy when it’s not boring your synapses into a coma. The only thing that saves this movie from an F rating is some fairly well done battle scenes, including a kick-ass one-on-one fight with Yoda.

Grade: D-

Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace: My expectations were actually pretty low when I went to see this as I had already heard the blah reviews coming in. Those expectations were met and then some. Jar-Jar Binks is a problem, but he’s barely more annoying than C-3PO. The problems lie in the directing and the awful acting of Jake Lloyd who got to play kid Darth Vader. The casting wasn’t all bad, as I quite enjoyed Liam Neeson and Ian McDiarmid. Even Ewan McGregor plays an okay Ben Kenobi. But Natalie Portman is wooden, though I’m not sure how much of that is her versus how her character was written. George Lucas ain’t exactly strong with character depth.

Grade: D+

Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith: A mild improvement over the previous two films, if only because of the improved story. Much like the second movie in the original trilogy, nothing much good happens to any of the annoying heroes. Perhaps Lucas is better at writing dark than happy. Fairly solid connections to the fourth movie in the series, with only a couple of annoying continuity things.

Grade: C

Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope: For the record, this review is for the original version, not the retrosuck updates Lucas made in the 90’s and ongoing. The pantheon of space operas, this movie mesmerized me as a child and I still enjoy watching it today. If I’m flipping channels I’ll almost always stop. The story is very simple, with clearly divided lines of good and evil and fairly flat characters. The dialogue is as terrible as anything Lucas has done. “My name is Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you!” is pretty lame stuff. Princess Leia’s lines are nearly universally cliche. The directing of the actors is also obviously flawed. Now Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill aren’t the world’s best actors, but they’re better than they are here. What helps Lucas out is that the actors, especially Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, really appear to be enjoying themselves. And, naturally, Alec Guiness is fantastic as Ben Kenobi. I know he was upset that he was most remembered for this short role and not the rest of his career, but he was really good here and if it weren’t for this movie, I may not know who he is.

What Lucas did do right is direct some pretty incredible special effects. It still amazes me how realistic the spaceships look for 1977. There are some glitches, but nothing too distracting. And, of course, John Williams’ score is epic. The opening trumpets still give me chills, and the sound effects are solid. Finally, the confrontation with the death star is wonderful. “All right kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home.”

Grade: A 

Other George Lucas Movies You May Have Seen

THX 1138
American Graffiti

Movies

Wes Craven

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A prolific horror director whose movies have never lived up to the weight of his name, at least from the movies I’ve seen. I really like good horror, but it’s really hard to spook me on the big screen. I’ll give him credit for some cool ideas, but the end product has never kept me awake at night, nor talking to my friends about that awesome scene.

The Last House on the Left: Somewhat commendable, I suppose, for it’s pornographic depiction of violence and gore, but that doesn’t make it good. Production values are awful with the exception of the realistic gore, and the acting is even worse. There’s nothing exciting about the plot either, with a group of rapist/murderers unwittingly taking refuge in the house of the parents of one of their victims. Not much in the way of suspense, mostly revulsion.

Grade: F

A Nightmare on Elm Street: A unique and engaging premise: Freddy Krueger was killed by a lynch mob, and finds himself able to enter the dreams of his assailants’ children and kill them there. Some freaky scenes, but I saw this when I was young and didn’t really find it scary. Johnny Depp’s film debut, and he’s fun.

Grade: D

Scream: Another cool premise, where teenagers are being offed by a serial killer who is really fond of scary movies. Nearly everyone is a suspect, and there’s some cleverness throughout the script. Ultimately unsatisfying, with a bunch of mediocre performances by mostly mediocre actors.

Grade: D+

Red Eye: One half of a fantastic movie, Rachel McAdams is taken hostage on a plane by Cillian Murphy, who reveals to her that he is involved in a plot to kill the Director of Homeland Security and needs her help (while on the plane) to make it happen. If she doesn’t help, something even worse will happen. Very suspenseful first half; Cillian Murphy is a fantastic villian, and McAdams is also a believable victim. But when the plane lands, the movie devolves into cliche horror movie tropes and an irritating ending.

Grade: C+

Other Movies By Wes Craven You May Have Seen

Scream 2, 3, & 4
Swamp Thing
The People Under the Stairs
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
Vampire in Brooklyn
Music of the Heart
My Soul to Take
Cursed

Movies

Curtis Hanson

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Curtis Hanson had some popular movies but nothing really acclaimed until L.A. Confidential, which was really acclaimed. Wonder Boys and 8 Mile were also well-received, and he hasn’t done much of notoriety since. I really don’t know what to think of him as a director, as he’s had movies that were worse than they should have been and better than they should have been, if that makes any sense.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Rebecca DeMornay is a nanny who is seemingly perfect, and of course her plan is to destroy the family. Over the top, obvious. Fantastic death scene, at least. Bad, but somewhat entertaining.

Grade: D+

The River Wild: Meryl Streep is an expert river rafter, which makes her the target of a couple of armed criminals (Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly) who want to use her (and her family) to escape the country. The acting is pretty good, but the script is really underwhelming. The rafting scenes are also not nearly as exciting as they should have been. Mildly suspenseful at times, which is not a compliment

Grade: C-

L.A. Confidential: Film noir about a three cops from a corrupt 1950’s L.A. police force who all try to solve the same brutal murder in three different ways. Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and Russell Crowe are all good, as is Kim Basinger, who won an Oscar. Beautifully shot, captures film noir perfectly, oozing cool and suspense.

Grade: A-

Other Curtis Hanson Films You May Have Seen

8 Mile
Wonder Boys
In Her Shoes
Lucky You
Chasing Mavericks
Bad Influence

Movies

Martin Brest

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Despite directing some pretty successful movies, Martin Brest has had a relatively small career, directing only six movies. His last movie, Gigli (2003) is considered one of the worst movies ever, but it was reportedly butchered by the studios (who forced it to be a rom-com), so how much blame Martin deserves is questionable. From the rest of his movies, he seems to be a competent director who has difficulty making cuts as they tend to run on the long side.

Meet Joe Black: A remake of sorts of the 1934 movie Death Takes A Holiday, where Death (Brad Pitt) strikes a deal with a multi-millionaire (Anthony Hopkins); the millionaire can live a little longer if he gives Death a tour of mortal pleasures (one of those being Claire Forlani). Well-acted, and a somewhat intriguing premise, but at three hours is about ninety minutes too long. My most significant memory of this movie is how bad I had to pee when it was over. At least I felt it was good enough to stay in the theater until it was over.

Grade: C+

Beverly Hills Cop: Eddie Murphy at his best in a only slightly dated comedy about a rogue Detroit cop solving crime in Beverly Hills. Judge Reinhold is fun and Bronson Pinchot’s cameo is fantastic.

Grade: B 

Scent of a Woman: Al Pacino, a blind former colonel, takes a desperate-for-cash college student (Chris O’Donnell, who thought he’d just be babysitting an old person) to New York City for one crazy weekend filled with many antics and some predictable moral lessons. Pacino won an Oscar for his performance. He was electrifying for sure, a bit of a caricature, but still entertaining.

Grade: B+

Other Martin Brest Films You May Have Seen

Going In Style
Midnight Run
Gigli

Movies

John McTiernan

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Focusing mainly on action flicks, John McTiernan had a fairly successful run of average to above-average movies that were generally well-received by fans and critics. It’s been ten years since he’s directed, and while I don’t know all the details, I imagine an ongoing trial related to lying to the FBI limited his ability to work in this capacity. He began serving his one-year sentence in April of this year.

It’s hard to say McTiernan gets the most of his actors, as pretty much everyone below I’ve seen do better elsewhere (with the possible exception of Alan Rickman). But he’s obviously skilled at directing stunts and special effects and it’s rare to be bored while watching one of his films.

Predator: Great sets, special effects and camerawork, along with the occasional good one-liner, help this action movie that really lacks in the acting department. The cinematic shining moment for my state’s former governor, for whatever that’s worth.

Grade: C

Die Hard: With A Vengeance: I saw this when it came out in 1995 having not seen any other in the movie in the series. I was underwhelmed. I felt the action scenes didn’t slow down long enough for me to enjoy them. I’d be willing to give it a second shot now that I’ve seen the first two.

Grade: C

The Hunt For Red October: The first of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, The Hunt for Red October is a fairly gripping Cold War submarine story. Shortly, Sean Connery is a Soviet submarine captain who is heading directly for America, but to attack or defect? Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) is desperately trying to find out in time. Rough around the edges, but well-acted and suspenseful.

Grade: B

Die Hard: An evil group of baddies led by Alan Rickman take hostages in a skyscraper, including Bruce Willis’s wife. Willis spends the whole movie trying to save everyone and himself. The action is good, and unlike the third movie, there is room to breathe. Obviously some implausible moments, and the chief of police (among others in authority) is pointlessly obnoxious to make Willis and his sidekick look good, but it’s all made better by Alan Rickman, who plays a deliciously evil antagonist. One of my favorite action flicks. Yippy-ky-yay!

Grade: B+

Other John McTiernan Movies You May Have Seen

Medicine Man (I fell asleep halfway through and had no desire to finish it)
Last Action Hero
The 13th Warrior
The Thomas Crown Affair
Rollerball
Basic
Nomads

 

Movies

Martin Scorsese

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Scorsese is hailed as one of the best directors of all-time, and sadly I’ve only seen a handful of his movies. From what I’ve read, he likes to focus a lot on male characters (especially Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio) coping with their own inadequacies, mirroring his own struggles and fantasies. Regardless, his directing abilities are as hailed from what I’ve seen. The camera always seems to be in the right place, and he gets exceptional performances out of most of his actors. I haven’t been a huge fan of the stories he chooses, so I’m a bit hesitant to just plow through his lengthy filmography. Of course, I’ll take recommendations from my lovely readers.

The Departed: While I like this film, I’m definitely in the minority for not thinking it’s one of the best of all-time. Currently, it is ranked #49 at the IMDb. Roger Ebert gave it four stars, though he did seem to give every movie four stars in the last several years of his life. The Departed is a remake of a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs, where one boy recruited by the mob (Matt Damon)  infiltrates the Boston police department, while one boy recruited by the Boston police department (Leonard DiCaprio) infiltrates the mob. It’s a fun, tangled web, and DiCaprio is superb, but I just never really got into the movie. I felt Jack Nicholson gave an uninspired performance as the mob boss. The police psychologist’s motivations felt completely unbelievable to me. And I felt little attachment to any of the characters, leaving me not all that interested in how it ended. Ebert says the movie is a lot about Catholic guilt, something Scorsese is intimately familiar with. Perhaps if I understood that I would have enjoyed it more.

Grade: B-

Hugo: A charming fantasy about an orphan boy in 1930’s Paris who lives inside the walls of a train station and has to solve a mystery surrounding one of his father’s automatons. Asa Butterfield, who plays the boy, is excellent, ultimately believable. The always delightful Chloe Moretz is great as well, making Hugo possibly the best assembly of pre-pubescent acting I’ve seen. Ben Kinglsey, not quite pre-pubescent, is also solid. Unfortunately, the plot itself lost my interest about half-way through. The excellent acting, directing, and cinematography kept me going through the end.

Grade: B-

The Color of Money: I haven’t seen this movie in a long time, and my memory has faded. What I do remember is that I loved Paul Newman’s performance as the old-school pool hustler. The story has its ups and down, and there’s no payoff to the mentor/pupil cliches, but it’s enjoyable to watch. What I need to do is watch The Hustler with Newman and Gleason. Someday..

Grade; B-

Goodfellas: For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. Ray Liotta narrates the first line of this epic gangster movie that rivals The Godfather in many ways. Liotta dreams of having the freedom he believes he’ll have if he can get into the mafia. He works his way in, generally happy as he’s working his way up the hierarchy, but then the shit gets really real and he wonders whether this is really the life for him. Based on the life of Henry Hill who worked with Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci while the film was being made. The acting is tremendous all around, with special props to Pesci, who is so good you can easily forget his comedic characters while watching. If you liked The Godfather, there’s a good chance you’ll like this as well.

Grade: A

Other Martin Scorsese Films You May Have Seen

Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Casino
The Last Waltz
Shutter Island
The King of Comedy
After Hours
The Last Temptation of Christ
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
Cape Fear