Last Movie You Watched? 6.0

BATMAN & ROBIN

Jesus. The other Bat-films had their share of flaws, but were entertaining on the whole. B&R is all flaws, with minimal redeeming value. It's varies wildly between it's comic book action and attempts at dramatic weight, but none of it connects. Clooney is the only one who is convincing in his role, as he's effectively playing himself when he's Wayne. Everyone else ranges from cardboard (O'Donnell, Silverstone), hilariously over the top (Arnold), or annoying (Thurman). Most of the story structure looks recycled from FOREVER, same with the musical score. Calling it a long Saturday morning cartoon is an insult to said cartoons.

There is a lot of action, more than any previous Bat-film. Things are literally flying everywhere, even Arnold clad in 70 pounds of armor slings himself from one side of a set to another.

Holy Bat-Rankings:

1) BATMAN RETURNS
2) BATMAN
3) BATMAN FOREVER
4) BATMAN & ROBIN

Burton Wrap up:

+Characters are well developed for the most part
+Kickass score
+Excellent (and inspired) casting
-Gotham seems small due to use of one big set to convey the downtown area
-Action sequences were consistently mediocre
-Villains have little, if any motive for causing chaos.

Shumacher Wrap up:
+Expanded city scale (often to ridiculous degrees)
+Attempts made to examine Batman's motives beyond his parents murders
+Improved action sequences
-Shallow
-Ended up degrading to a big toy commercial
-Horrible casting decisions in the end

But good work from Goldenthal.

I like Goldenthal's FOREVER score, but his work on B&R sounds the same for the most part. Anytime I commented on the score, it was pertaining to where I remembered the music from the previous film.

Seems like everyone else likes B&R's score better than FOREVER's.

Goldenthal's B&R score just the first one taken to the nth degree.

Clone (although it would seem from the end credits, it was originally called 'Womb') - slow-burning sci-fi drama with Eva Green and Matt Smith as first childhood friends and later lovers. When Smith is killed in a car accident, Green goes to a cloning facility which 'impregnates' her with genetic material from him and she goes on to give birth to a perfect clone of him. He grows up obviously regarding her as his mother but things turn awkward when his 'original' mother comes calling and he begins to ask questions ... and then the sexual attraction between the two of them 're-ignites'.

The B&R score has some cues even directly repeated. (Example: the cue in Forever with Bruce using the chair to exit the office is re-utilized exactly in B&R when Mr. Freeze is attempting to escape the dynamic duo in his rocket van thing, just before the statue jump. To try and cover this, they turned the music down in the mix.) Everything is simply repeated in the production because it was very rushed and unplanned. The first thing done on the film? A meeting with Hasbro for the toy line, where everything had to be done to accommodate them and their products.
It's not really ever been Schumacher's fault, and he has gone down in flames ever since. He was just the guy hired on to do the project. If you dig around you can find his plans for a truer Batman followup, Triumphant, which would have featured the Scarecrow and a much harder rating PG-13 or R. Even more so, he wanted to do a true adaptation of Miller's Year One. I know what you're thinking, because I did the same thing: "Joel Schumacher likes Year One? WTFH!?!?!"

Makes sense. He was brought in the first place because WB wanted a lighter tone after RETURNS so he did what they demanded. Still, his OTT stylized direction was still evident.

Largo's Shark wrote:

I've got a lot of fondness for THE SAND PEBBLES and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN too.

Andromeda is a guilty semi-pleasure for me. HAUNTING is pretty good, but it is like Stephen King says in DANSE MACABRE: The Haunting never shows you what was behind the door, and therefore it kind of chicken-switches.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Clone (although it would seem from the end credits, it was originally called 'Womb') - slow-burning sci-fi drama with Eva Green and Matt Smith as first childhood friends and later lovers. When Smith is killed in a car accident, Green goes to a cloning facility which 'impregnates' her with genetic material from him and she goes on to give birth to a perfect clone of him. He grows up obviously regarding her as his mother but things turn awkward when his 'original' mother comes calling and he begins to ask questions ... and then the sexual attraction between the two of them 're-ignites'.

Man, just the TRAILER for that movie made us uneasy. Eva Green is so fearless she is practically in Chloe Sevigny territory (not that that's always a good thing.)

I'd be more inclined to forgive Schumacher for ruining Batman if he didn't then proceed to ruin Phantom of the Opera (and that's without talking about whether ALW ruined it to begin with)

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I'd be more inclined to forgive Schumacher for ruining Batman if he didn't then proceed to ruin Phantom of the Opera (and that's without talking about whether ALW ruined it to begin with)

I was thinking of that. I only saw the first five minutes of that film, I was immediately turned off by how overindulgent it came off. Plus, I hate the musical anyway. Trying to turn the Phantom into this really puts me off. Dude is supposed to be a monster, not Edward Cullen.

Webber didn't ruin PHANTOM. He secured its popularity. Were it not for Webber's megahit, Leroux's novel would be out of print, and the Lon Chaney film would be little more than a footnote in cinema history.

Perhaps, but it kinda peeves me that that version seems to overshadow what came before, similar to how everyone thinks THE WIZARD OF OZ has always been a technicolor musical first.

Harmsway wrote:

Webber didn't ruin PHANTOM. He secured its popularity. Were it not for Webber's megahit, Leroux's novel would be out of print, and the Lon Chaney film would be little more than a footnote in cinema history.

True, true. Hell I'm a Phantom fan because of that musical. And the stage version is immensely superior to Schumacher's take, largely due to Schumacher's insistance on "everyone must be beautiful" in his movies. But as I've gotten older I've come to recognize how much Webber's "genius" is really the genius of everyone else who gets involved. Also that sequel musical sucked.

Also securing something's popularity doesn't make your version definitive. MP makes a good point with WIZARD OF OZ -- a book I love and a movie I loathe.

I'm not sure that much of what came before Webber's version as far as PHANTOM goes is all that good.

At any rate, the Webber stageshow, as staged by Hal Prince--particularly in its original incarnation, when Crawford was in the title role--is embedded with a strange, threatening atmosphere. People forget that Webber's musical, in the first ten years especially, cast people who embedded the Phantom with a great deal of creepiness, often emphasizing the uncomfortable undercurrent of deeply repressed, predatory sexuality, and were far from your conventional leading men (many of 'em were old, unattractive dudes with fairly odd voices).

But I also think that the film version of THE WIZARD OF OZ is vastly superior to the novel on which it is based. I don't get the love for Baum's OZ books.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Makes sense. He was brought in the first place because WB wanted a lighter tone after RETURNS so he did what they demanded. Still, his OTT stylized direction was still evident.

I don't think Schumacher even HAS a style in his Batman movies or PHANTOM.

Harmsway wrote:

At any rate, the Webber stageshow, as staged by Hal Prince--particularly in its original incarnation, when Crawford was in the title role--is embedded with a strange, threatening atmosphere. People forget that Webber's musical, in the first ten years especially, cast people who embedded the Phantom with a great deal of creepiness, often emphasizing the uncomfortable undercurrent of deeply repressed, predatory sexuality, and were far from your conventional leading men (many of 'em were old, unattractive dudes with fairly odd voices).

EXACTLY! THAT'S EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Crawford was brilliant because Crawford was SCARY! The number one mistake the damn movie version makes is trying to make the Phantom sexy.

PROMETHEUS.



More like PROMEFIASCO. Utter rubbish.

Largo's Shark wrote:

PROMETHEUS.



More like PROMEFIASCO. Utter rubbish.

I must confess Prometheus and Dark Knight Rises are about the only films that are likely to goad me to the cinema this year and the more I hear and see of this one the lower my enthusiasm to do so......may wait for the blu ray instead.

The Hustler

Excellent characterization and acting, admirable cinematography and editing (gimmicks that actually work very well). A nice jazzy score too. The only thing that slightly marrs the end is Felson telegraphing that his character has changed. This should have been implied.
I like it a lot.

trevanian wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Clone (although it would seem from the end credits, it was originally called 'Womb') - slow-burning sci-fi drama with Eva Green and Matt Smith as first childhood friends and later lovers. When Smith is killed in a car accident, Green goes to a cloning facility which 'impregnates' her with genetic material from him and she goes on to give birth to a perfect clone of him. He grows up obviously regarding her as his mother but things turn awkward when his 'original' mother comes calling and he begins to ask questions ... and then the sexual attraction between the two of them 're-ignites'.

Man, just the TRAILER for that movie made us uneasy. Eva Green is so fearless she is practically in Chloe Sevigny territory (not that that's always a good thing.)

Yeah, it definitely makes for uncomfortable viewing at times ... interesting flick, though. I'll confess my main interest was seeing Smith in something outside of Doctor Who.

The Queen

nothing to it really beyond James Cromwell. Stone me I'll stick with the King's Speech. Still, Sylvia Syms had some things to do such as upholding the latter day image of the Queen Mother.

The Longest Day

D-Day anniversary. About as accurate as you're going to get really, with faults but there you go. "48 International Stars", back when there were stars. Always a case of going, look there's so and so. John Wayne's performance as Vandervoort (82nd Airborne) is quite something in its little way. And there for a blessed minute is Kenneth More and Sean Connery in the same scene. (A bearded Kenny at that, now that's how Crichton should've looked by the end) Man had bills to pay.
And of course two Bond villains, Jurgens and Frobe...if only Roger Moore had been about.
One of the best shots personally is the French assault on Ouisterham the camera from above showing the troops spilling into and around the harbour whilst under gun and shellfire. No sets, no CGI or models.

from an interview with Ken Annakin

Quote :

And you did see them all! You’re also responsible for what most people feel is the best sequence of the film: the battle of Casino, which has that amazing helicopter shot.

That was the best shot I’ve ever done in my life. That shot they’d tried with a French director who left soon after that, and it was my introduction to the helicopter pilot who I used many times after that picture, particularly on Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. He was a great guy, and had a sense of placing his helicopter in just the right place, like it was a camera itself. He was a joy to work with. I must say I’m very proud of that Casino shot, and pleased I had an opportunity to do it. I think the sequence was quite accurate, although it came at a slightly different part of the war than Zanuck had it, although it was right with (Cornelius Ryan’s) book.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Only my second viewing of the movie but I decided to approach my new blu ray set Correlian style (so at the very least I can look ahead to better things).

+ves - The realisation of the different worlds is impressive, Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neesom do work wonders with some very dodgy scenes, John Williams is in fine fettle and the final duel against Darth Maul is probably the best duel/confrontation of the series.

-ve's - Excruciatingly poor dialogue, a parade of under developed and half baked ideas (is George Lucas a Pseudenym for Purvis and Wade?), a dreafully miscast Anakin, Jar Jar Binks, and some bizarrely flat lifeless direction.

5/10

PROMETHEUS

1) PROMETHEUS
2) THE AVENGERS
3) MEN IN BLACK 3
4) BATTLESHIP

More info to be posted in the PROMETHEUS thread.

lachesis wrote:

(is George Lucas a Pseudenym for Purvis and Wade?),

:lol!: Wow, that comment just made my day!