Author Topic: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 395696 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #730 on: July 10, 2010, 09:37:23 AM »
I need to see Out of the Blue but haven't been able to find it anywhere yet.

BlueVoid

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #731 on: July 11, 2010, 05:30:50 PM »
Rain Man
vs.
The Dead




Rain Man
1988
Barry Levinson



A coming together story of a self centered business man and his autistic brother, based on a real person named Kim Peek, a high functioning autistic savant with amazing mental abilities.  The film is more about the relationship between Raymond Babbitt(Dustin Hoffman) and his brother Charlie(Tom Cruise).  It is a sweet story, but altogether too formulaic.  Cruise plays a very one note detestable egomaniac, who only discovers his brother after his father dies.  This was my biggest problem with the movie.  It was the classic case of the bad guy finding a heart.  It wasn't the worst execution of it, but there was nothing new there.  I would have liked more focus on Raymond since he was by far the more interesting character, but it was more focused on Cruise's character.  Rain Man was charming, but there just wasn't enough happening plot wise to make this a remarkable experience.




The Dead
1987
John Huston



It is poetic that in John Huston's last film 'The Dead', he himself is dying while filming it.  Directing the film in a wheelchair, he adapts a short story about Gabriel (Donal McCann) and his wife Gretta (Angelica Huston), who attend a family holiday party at the turn of the century in Ireland.  The party evokes strong emotions from Gretta after she hears a song that makes her remember a love who died long ago.

This is a brutally dull film.  There just isn't anyway around it.  From the first scene, to nearly the end, we are cramped inside a stuffy house party with guests so boring its nearly painful.  There is subtlety in the things they say to one another, and it does eventually contribute to the ultimate payoff, but it doesn't make watching it any more enjoyable.  The acting is oddly stiff, and there is absolutely zero connection between anyone making the whole thing very uncomfortable. It's entirely reminiscent of one of those bland Hallmark channel movies that you immediately click off of when you stumble upon it and wonder why anyone would watch it.  From the lighting to the monotone dialog it's enough to put anyone to sleep.  It's not the slow pace which I have a problem with, its just the lack of anything interesting to latch on to.

I was all set to hate this film until the very end, when we mercifully leave the party.  It's at this point that Gretta is effected by the memory of her formal love, and her husband coaxes out of her what's wrong.  The final monolog is so eloquent and moving that it just about makes up for the drivel which came before it.  It was if I were watching two completely different movies.  It's a shame that I had to sit through the first part, as the ending was actually a film I could recommend.  While Huston ultimately goes out on a high note, it was too little too late. 



Verdict: I don't love Rain Man like a lot of people seem to.  I was fully prepared to have it packing its bags in the first round.  But I just don't have it in me to send The Dead on.  It really was a pretty painful watch.  Rain Man moves on comfortably.
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smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #732 on: July 11, 2010, 06:23:51 PM »
The Outsiders
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)


Not much to get excited about here. Bad bad acting by almost everybody. It's too bad Swayze didn't have a bigger role, because he was the only one I could take seriously. Matt Dillon was atrocious. Ralph Macchio and whoever played Ponyboy were awful too. The bad acting combined with lines like "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold" just make you role your eyes. This film gave me no reason to overlook the cheesiness. The Romeo & Juliet-like lover story, the rich kids versus the poor kids dilemma... . I was not into it at all.

Seriously?

I'll give the story credit though, not everything is black and white. Yes the Greasers are hooligans, and jerks, but they are also products of their environment. As are the Socs. It's complicated I guess. The moral of the story is life's not fair, but stay positive anyways. Do what's right, because it's right.


The Thief
(Michael Mann, 1987)

This film feels exactly like what it is. Mann's first film.  It's Heat ver. 1.0.  Similar in every way, and worse in every way. There's no reason to watch it unless you just have too see every Michael Mann film. It's not bad... it's actually quite decent and sometimes good. The thing is, watching it is like using Windows 95 again. Why would you?

Quote from: lotrsam
What’s not so arresting is the bombastic, grating ‘80s synth score. Most of the electronic music of the ‘80s just couldn’t compete with a proper musical score. It’s the same here. It also doesn’t help that the sound mixer often brings it up to be the key sound element in the film. The odd, otherworldly tones don’t fit in with what is a fairly typical crime drama.

Yes. AWFUL!

In short, skip The Thief, watch Heat, and know that Michael Mann came a long way as a director in the 14 years between the two films.


Verdict: But wait, you can't skip The Thief because it's moving on to Round 2 where it will (and should) lose to Rainman.


smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #733 on: July 11, 2010, 06:26:18 PM »
Rain Man

A coming together story of a self centered business man and his autistic brother, based on a real person named Kim Peek, a high functioning autistic savant with amazing mental abilities.  The film is more about the relationship between Raymond Babbitt(Dustin Hoffman) and his brother Charlie(Tom Cruise).  It is a sweet story, but altogether too formulaic.  Cruise plays a very one note detestable egomaniac, who only discovers his brother after his father dies.  This was my biggest problem with the movie.  It was the classic case of the bad guy finding a heart.  It wasn't the worst execution of it, but there was nothing new there.  I would have liked more focus on Raymond since he was by far the more interesting character, but it was more focused on Cruise's character.  Rain Man was charming, but there just wasn't enough happening plot wise to make this a remarkable experience.

I'm glad it moved on. Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it more. :-\ How'd you like the soundtrack? :)

flieger

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #734 on: July 11, 2010, 06:33:59 PM »
The Thief
(Michael Mann, 1987)

This film feels exactly like what it is. Mann's first film.  It's Heat ver. 1.0.  Similar in every way, and worse in every way. There's no reason to watch it unless you just have too see every Michael Mann film. It's not bad... it's actually quite decent and sometimes good. The thing is, watching it is like using Windows 95 again. Why would you?

Quote from: lotrsam
What’s not so arresting is the bombastic, grating ‘80s synth score. Most of the electronic music of the ‘80s just couldn’t compete with a proper musical score. It’s the same here. It also doesn’t help that the sound mixer often brings it up to be the key sound element in the film. The odd, otherworldly tones don’t fit in with what is a fairly typical crime drama.

Yes. AWFUL!

In short, skip The Thief, watch Heat, and know that Michael Mann came a long way as a director in the 14 years between the two films.


Verdict: But wait, you can't skip The Thief because it's moving on to Round 2 where it will (and should) lose to Rainman.



Nice work, smirnoff. Yes, it's Heat 1.0, but it's not that bad. In fact, it's pretty good.
It should walk all over Levinson's nicely managed, but pretty shallow Rain Man in the next round. Especially if I "randomly" get the match-up.  :-*

smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #735 on: July 11, 2010, 06:35:47 PM »
Nice work, smirnoff. Yes, it's Heat 1.0, but it's not that bad. In fact, it's pretty good.
It should walk all over Levinson's nicely managed, but pretty shallow Rain Man in the next round. Especially if I "randomly" get the match-up.  :-*



;)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #736 on: July 11, 2010, 06:42:23 PM »
Yay for getting quoted about bad 80s music! :D

Bondo

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #737 on: July 11, 2010, 11:31:47 PM »
The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer, 1985)

Huh?

This film overloaded my mental circuits. It switches between a lot of random and seemingly unrelated snippets. A man being interviewed, a movie showing behind him, sometimes the audio is the man, sometimes the movie. Sometimes we get something that looks like standard film, but sometimes there is voice-over from an unknown narrator. It has really terrible line deliveries and acting, generally speaking.

The overarching point of the film seems to be left-wing politics and feminism. It is like if Linklater had a poorly made, uninteresting film that made me want to punch hippies. One moment in particular, the narrator is talking angrily about how the New York Times started up a column about men’s lives (to mirror a one already existing about women’s lives, but with better placement), especially highlighting how it is written in the perspective of the negative effects of a certain thing on men rather than focusing on the negative effects on others (namely women). This kind of thinking treats gender as a zero-sum contest and is one of the critical failings of “feminisms” compared to egalitarianism.

There are too many big words and boring lectures. There is actually a long scene of a guy lecturing with the camera wandering and the sound often includes people chatting in the background. Very annoying and amateur. Sometimes someone like Guy Maddin comes along and makes avant garde work, but for the most part I have no use for it.

Anyway, this one really is quite terrible. It is like someone observed me over my life to figure out what would best represent hell to me and then sent that information back in time to when I was born in order to make a film that would capture that hell so that I might happen to watch it 25 years later and experience that hell.

IMDB link



IMDB link
Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)

Note, do not do a Google images search for Big. Good grief.

History has been kind to this film. I mean, there is so much that can be interpreted with the age theme. Sure, there is the classical sense in which youth is wasted on the young who want to be older and do adult things and adults may well wish for the simpler times of childhood. It is about a children who for one reason or another have to grow up too quickly and about the failure of adults to remain young at heart where it would be best for them to do so. Yet, today we've got the popular theme of arrested development; the 20 or 30-something man who has not taken on the responsibilities previously identified with adulthood (whether that is marriage and parenthood or living independently from one's parents). Also, watching him play the child in a man's body makes one think of a person with autism, an affliction that has been on the rise in the intervening years. All of this makes the age-bending premise of Big very fresh.

It does of course have the classic scenes, especially the big piano, that are just very touching. Tom Hanks really is an American treasure. His versatility in doing comedy here and the drama that would come in the 90s is a depth of resume that not many can match.

All this said, I can't say I hold this film in any special place in my heart. It isn't quite funny enough or quite touching enough to take it to the next level. But naturally, it makes me long for various experiences I could relive with a child's uncynical eyes (also, too, the moment of awe in being with a woman the first time which is so magically captured here). What's more, not having seen this for at least a decade, it is amazing the degree to which getting older and having some of these experiences makes me appreciate it more.

Verdict: I have seen Big before and having seen the first half of this pairing I can already announce the verdict. I will watch Big again tomorrow and do a proper write-up on why it is moving on.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2010, 10:39:25 PM by Bondo »

flieger

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #738 on: July 12, 2010, 12:02:23 AM »
The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer, 1985)

The overarching point of the film seems to be left-wing politics and feminism. It is like if Linklater had a poorly made, uninteresting film that made me want to punch hippies. One moment in particular, the narrator is talking angrily about how the New York Times started up a column about men’s lives (to mirror a one already existing about women’s lives, but with better placement), especially highlighting how it is written in the perspective of the negative effects of a certain thing on men rather than focusing on the negative effects on others (namely women). This kind of thinking treats gender as a zero-sum contest and is one of the critical failings of “feminisms” compared to egalitarianism.

How can I put this?
Huh?
Yeah, that's it.
 ???

tinyholidays

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #739 on: July 12, 2010, 12:17:27 AM »
do a proper write-up on why it is moving on.[/b][/center]

Hopefully because it is incredible.

Seriously, I love Big, and I want it to go far in this bracket. It's a wonderful, charming, touching, funny film. I want it to tuck me in to bed at night.

 

love