Cinematic Throwbacks: September 1991/2001/2011

2001:

They don't make em like this anymore. The star-led, mid-budget thriller used to be a cinema staple. Michael Douglas starred in a bunch of them. For me none was better than Don't Say A Word, just a slick, engrossing genre entry and hugely rewatchable. 

I feel like this one has largely been forgotten though. It's assembled from a lot of other movies for sure. There's a lot of Ransom here, and some Primal Fear (from the same director). It has that thing a lot of these movies have, where no matter what it has to end in either a gun fight or a fist fight. Here we get both.

Douglas's daughter is kidnapped by Sean Bean in one of his many villain roles. Douglas (a psychiatrist, also a genre staple) has to obtain some mysterious information from a hospitalized girl (Brittany Murphy) to get her back. Within the day. Oh, and it's Thanksgiving. There's also a detective (Jennifer Esposito, who should have been a bigger deal) on the trail.

This movie was, is, and will forever be all about Brittany Murphy, who was on the radar before this but who really broke out with what by all rights should have been an Oscar nominated performance. Just a hugely memorable performance and character, and while this movie kicked off about a 5 year run when she was a fairly big deal (and one of my favorite actresses) she never got a role on this level again, really. 

2011:

Hey, remember when this was just a star-studded Steven Soderbergh movie instead of our life?

I actually didn't rewatch this for the blog. I watched it last year right as COVID was becoming a real thing for America. And tbh it was not a good thing to watch then, cause when we didn't really yet know for sure that COVID was that survivable, it was easy to watch this and think we were looking at like, tens of millions dead.

Cause while this film IS a piece of entertainment, with a lot of big stars and is an entertaining watch, it is also presented in a very realistic manner. The fact that the virus in the film (also originating in China...from a bat) kills a lot of people but doesn't kill everyone or even most everyone, as most movie viruses would, somehow makes it scarier and more unsettling.

But as a movie it is very good. Great cast, with Damon and Winslet and a slew of others. Great direction. Engrossing story. I just don't want to live it. 

Drive was a big deal at the time. The style and the violence and Ryan Gosling in the scorpion jacket (I remember someone on twitter being obsessed with the jacket). It was one of those films seemingly designed to create a devoted cult.

I liked it. I liked it for the style, the music, most of the performances (an against type Albert Brooks, early Carey Mulligan, I think the 1st time I saw Oscar Isaac).

I don't think this one has held up that well honestly. I still like the things I liked about it in 2011, but it truly is ALL style. The Gosling character is just a poser, not a character. It's purposely not an action movie, but it goes too far the other way.

The director, Nicholas Winding Refn, never really has had another hit since in any capacity. One hit wonder. 

Moneyball contains one of the single most believability-stretching scenes in any movie I have ever seen: a post-1991 Twins team winning a playoff series. Sure, Hollywood, likely story.

This movie was my pick at the time for the #1 movie of the year. I loved just everything about it.

I finally got around to reading the book this summer, and it's definitely very different in a lot of ways than the movie. It would have to be. A lot of the book is deep in the weeds analytics talk, and player flashbacks. The movie is done as an underdog story, similar to other sports movies but hardly about the players at all.

Brad Pitt of course plays Billy Beane, and it's one of his best and most fun performances. He's a lot more likeable than Beane is portrayed in the book. The movie also adds in a few scenes with his daughter to make him more relatable. 

This was the movie that pivoted Jonah Hill into being considered a series actor. He's good in this, although not Oscar nomination worthy. Philip Seymour Hoffman is gruff perfection as Art Howe. A pre-MCU Chris Pratt is good as Scott Hatteberg.

Aaron Sorkin co-wrote the adaptation and his dialogue as usual is just the best. It really takes a story that would seemingly have.no crossover appeal and makes it fun and accessible, without tossing out why the story mattered in the first place. 

 

It doesn't have some of those key points of the usual great sports movies, but it's definitely among the very best baseball movies.of all time. 

Joseph Gordon Levitt is a young man who finds out he has a rare form of spinal cancer, the odds of survival for it being 50%. But this is a comedy.

They really don't do true dramedies anymore. It can be hard to balance tone, but this one finds just that right mix. Seth Rogen plays JGL's best friend, and this was Rogen's 2nd movie in 3 years in which he plays the friend of someone with cancer. And this is arguably a better movie than Funny People. I think this was on my original 2011 top 10.

Levitt and Rogen are both as good as they have ever been. Anna Kendrick has just the most.perfect ray of sunshine role she has maybe ever had. 

In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon plays a regular everyday working man who begins to have awful nightmares of some sort of oncoming disaster. Or are they premonitions? 

This film barely got a theatrical release. I didn't see it til sometime later and was kind of blown away. This is a really unsettling film, and it all stems from Shannon, who frankly gives one of the best performances I have ever seen. Watching him slowly unravel is gripping stuff.

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1991:

-Necessary Roughness: Just a decent football movie, but it lives on any time somebody says "fumblerooski"

-Rambling Rose: One of Laura Dern's breakthroughs.

-The Fisher King: Never seen this, but I probably should. 

2001:

-The Musketeer: "We wanna make a new Three Musketeers movie. Ideas?" "Let's make it a Kung fu movie." "Sold"

-Rock Star: A lousy Mark Wahlberg movie where he plays a, well, rock star. 

-Soul Survivors: I was excited for this at the time cause Eliza Dushku was in it, but it sucked. 

-Two Can Play That Game: The only memorable thing about this is that I saw it on September 10th. 

-The Glass House: The only memorable thing about this is that it was the first movie I saw after 9/11. 

-Hardball: I wasn't a fan of this Keanu Reeves baseball movie, but I guess it has developed a following. 

-Glitter: The soundtrack for this is legitimately pretty great, but yeah, the movie was awful and deserves its infamy. 

-Zoolander: I was never a fan. Natalie cameod in this though and that was her only big screen appearance in 2001 so that was a big deal to me. 

2011:

-Abduction: How sad that the last film ever directed by the great John Singleton was this forgettable Taylor Lautner action movie. 

-Red State: I kind of liked this change of pace movie from Kevin Smith. At least a lot more than most of his output the last 15 years. 

-Dream House: A forgettable horror movie but Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz got married after making this so good for them. 

-What's Your Number?:

Coming in October...

The big ones come from 2001, as Training Day, Donnie Darko and one of the last great romcoms, Serendipity, turn 20.