Cinematic Throwbacks: December 1991/2001/2011

1991:

JFK is simply one of the best movies ever made. I guess that's become a really controversial take over the years, cause of how controversial the film itself is. 

Yes, Oliver Stone's film has some fictional stuff in it. I mean, even when I first saw this film I probably figured out that Mr. X was made up. Some other characters in the film are either made up or composites. But, sue me, I to this day buy into Stone's overall mission statement: That the JFK assassination was not as simple as one crazy nut deciding to kill the president. The magic bullet theory is complete horseshit. Doesn't mean there was a conspiracy as vast as the one presented in the film, but I don't think Oswald did it all by himself either.

Whatever one's take is on the assassination, this film is an absolute masterpiece. The best film Stone has ever made. A dazzling 3 hour mix of docudrama, procedural, suspense thriller, and courtroom drama. The sheer amount of information conveyed in this film could have overwhelmed, but it's really clear and easy to follow (though to be fair I have seen the film many times). The whole film practically is exposition, with many long scenes of characters explaining things to each other. But it is gripping. The editing on this thing is an all timer.

The cast is remarkable. You of course have Kevin Costner still in peak movie star mode, and giving easily one of his best performances. Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Candy (!), plus countless excellent character actors.

And of course Donald Sutherland, whose Mr. X scene is one of my all time favorite ten minutes in any movie. Throw in the recounting of Oswald's actions on the day of the assassination, and the film has two of my all time favorite sequences.

Only knock on the film is pretty much all the domestic stuff with a shrill Sissy Spacek as Costner's wife. Like, sorry he missed an Easter dinner but get over it, lady.

Amongst Bruce Willis's starring vehicles, it would be tough to say anything was ever better than Die Hard. But, if I had to make a pick for 2nd place, I would pick this one. The Last Boy Scout is just a complete blast, the last of the great 80s action flicks. Yeah it came out in 91 but this is pure 80s.

Willis. Tony Scott. Joel Silver. Action movie icons all. I guess their team-up was not a fun shoot, but the film sure is. Willis's private detective teams up with a disgraced ex-QB (Damon Wayans, who I really thought was going to be huge off this) on a case involving some assorted criminals, all centered around sports gambling. Kind of quaint now considering how things are.

It's just a classic Shane Black script full of funny tough guy dialogue, which has never had a better vessel than Willis. I guess he and Wayans hated each other but they are one of my all time favorite buddy movie pairs. Wayans is really awesome here. He had a little run in the 90s but it never really took off.

I was definitely crushing on Danielle Harris off this movie, where she plays Willis's foul-mouthed daughter. Supporting cast has a bunch of fun character actor types. And I'm pretty sure this movie was the 1st I ever saw of Halle Berry.

The football stuff in this is all way over the top and ridiculous. I mean, the 1st scene has a player shooting other players on the field (wonder if THAT would draw a flag for a Brady team?🤔). But it all fits with a film that makes no apologies for being completely over the top and crazy, as many a Tony Scott flick was. 

We never got a sequel to this, unfortunately. I guess when everyone hates each other and then the resulting film isn't that big a hit that's what you get. 

 

2001:

Get your walking shoes on, cause we're heading to Middle Earth!

The Fellowship of the Ring, of all six of these movies, remains my favorite. All of these films are too damn long (and I own the extended DVDs, which are even longer), but FOTR is the one that probably feels the least bloated.

It sets the table. It introduces most of the major characters who factor in to this trilogy, and makes them all pretty distinct and fully realized. All of the production design and most of the fx work hold up very well. These films were actually pretty groundbreaking as far as fx, particularly with Gollum, who we only see in glimpses here. The open ending is quite good. 

The casting is tremendous. I think Ian McKellen got an Oscar nomination for his Gandalf, and this is probably my favorite thing he has ever done to this day. Elijah Wood is a great, sympathetic Frodo. Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sean Astin, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean (getting killed as usual), all excellent.

Fantasy films are not really my thing. There are not many that I consider myself a big fan of. I wouldn't even say I'm a BIG fan of these movies, but it's clear why they are considered standard bearers for the genre.

Why do we even need movie stars, you ask? Oh, you didn't ask? Well if you did ask me, I would present Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven as my answer.

Sure, this is as slick and purely entertaining a directorial effort as you will see. Soderbergh is pretty much at the peak of his powers here, balancing mainstream and indie sensibilities so well that they merge into one. The music is great, and the script is very clever, one of the best heist movie scripts ever.

But it all works because it stars a bunch of big movie stars exuding maximum movie star charisma. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts. All are terrific here, particularly Clooney and Pitt. But the movie also finds plenty of openings for the non-top of the line stars to shine. It's a big movie star movie but also a true ensemble that mesh so well.

I'm still not exactly sure how the casino robbery exactly works, but it doesn't matter. They make you buy it.

I didn't really buy either of the sequels, or the female-led one from a few years ago that pissed off the incels. None are bad, but none can touch the original (and yes, I know it's a remake)

Will Smith is getting a lot of Oscar hype right now for King Richard, with a lot of people saying he could finally win his 1st Oscar. 

He should have won it 20 years ago. His performance as Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann's sprawling biopic is still his best performance. He gets all the swagger, all the charisma, but the quieter and darker stuff too. It's a really exciting performance to watch.

This film got a lot of hate at the time. Spike Lee was very public about how wrong he thought it was that a white director was doing the first big Ali film. I mean, I get it, but Mann is hardly some hack. This was back during Mann's commercial and critical peak. He had just done Heat and The Insider. He would do Collateral next. I might actually place this film 4th among those 4, but it's an excellent film.

Like most of the better biopics, it doesn't try to cover a life cradle to grave. This film covers the period from when Ali won his first title through his Rumble In The Jungle win to regain the title about a decade later.

It maybe could have used a tighter edit, and it was probably a bad idea to have Malcolm X be such a major character when Spike's film was then still so recent.

Excellent supporting cast. Jamie Foxx had probably the standout role as Ali's trainer. Jon Voight (pre-MAGA insanity) is a really entertaining Howard Cosell. Jada Pinkett is one of Ali's wives.

2011:

During the 2010s, the Mission Impossible franchise really took hold as one of the biggest deals, certainly among ones that don't involve superheroes.

Ghost Protocol was the 1st entry in the franchise for 5 years, during which Tom Cruise was still making one last push as the biggest movie star in the world no matter what movie he did. But nothing really hit, so he went back to the well with this.

It was already a pretty successful franchise, but this movie really set the formula for the movies we have had since. Specifically, having each movie really centered around one big stunt sequence that Cruise does himself. In this movie, that meant hanging to the side of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

Do you remember the plot reasons this happens? Probably not, but you remember the sequence, one that holds up even on a small screen.

Fwiw the plot is pretty familiar stuff involving stolen nuclear codes and secret deals. It's enough to hang a whole series of cool action sequences on though. It's a hell of a first ever live action directorial effort from Brad Bird. 

This was kinda sorta maybe meant to set up Jeremy Renner's character to either take over the series or maybe get a spinoff. That never came to be, but Renner's fun in this. Paula Patton is awesome. Seriously, Hollywood, you couldn't turn HER into a huge star? What is wrong with you? 

Cruise himself seemed.to settle in here as the lead of an ensemble and not just one star towering over everything.

I think Ghost Protocol remains my favorite in the series, at least of this second incarnation of it. Great memorable action, good mix of humor, the cast works great together.

I honestly don't get the fascination with TGWTDT overall. The lead character, Lisbeth Salander, is undoubtedly a cool creation. But between the original films, this remake, and the new one from a few years ago she is the ONLY standout element.

This version is easily the best. It has David Fincher behind the camera, and all the brilliant visuals that come with it. Great score. Daniel Craig as the actual lead is pretty good. Solid supporting cast.

Still, this is a Lisbeth movie, and a Rooney Mara movie. Mara is fucking incredible in this, a total body transformation. Piercings, crazy hair, bleached eyebrows. Still hot though, cause, Rooney Mara. The film noticeably lags every moment she is not on screen. Her and Craig have a really distinct chemistry. 

She got Oscar nominated for this, but while she has been in a lot of stuff since her career hasn't taken off like it should have. 

Young Adult was a big deal due to it being a reunion of director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody after Juno.

This isn't on that level, but it is a pretty good dark comedy, about a YA novelist (Charlize Theron) who goes back to her hometown and tries to win back her high school boyfriend (Patrick Wilson)...who is married with a newborn, not that that would dissuade her.

It's a comedy of uncomfortable moments and cringing scenes. Theron admirably lets her character be thoroughly loathsome the whole way. She doesn't grow as a person. She doesn't learn valuable life lessons.

Theron is just outstanding here. She really can do it all, and even with an Oscar and some hit movies to her credit I still don't think she really gets her due. It's almost entirely her movie, though Patton Oswalt does have a memorable role as another former classmate of Theron's. 

The least known of this month's films, this movie stars Tilda Swinton as the mother of a teenage son (pre-Flash Ezra Miller) who committed some sort of violent act at school. The film keeps it pretty vague what took place, but you can assume it was some sort of shooting a la Columbine.

The film is more about what led up to whatever happened, showing mother and son's contentious relationship. It gets into that nature vs nurture thing. They never got along, but the kid is often presented as something akin to a demon child, doing horrible things seemingly unprompted. The mother is not presented as a saint, but overall the film is more on her side of the issue.

By design the movie is an incredibly uncomfortable watch, but it's very compelling drama. Swinton has carved out a long career now playing weirdos and eccentrics, so it's interesting watching her play such a relatively normal person. Miller (set up by the younger version of the character) is genuinely creepy. John C. Reilly is very good as the dad, whose own parental relationship completely clashes with what's really going on.

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1971:

-A Clockwork Orange: The Kubrick classic. I haven't actually watched this movie since I was probably in high school, but I did like it. 

1981:

-Neighbors: I remember watching this John Belushi movie thinking the then upcoming Seth Rogen movie of the same name was some remake. It's not. Okay movie, Belushi's last. 

1991:

-Star Trek 6: The last one with the whole original cast. It was one of the better in the series to that point. 

-Father of the Bride: I saw this in theaters. Pretty good Steve Martin comedy, the kind they don't make anymore. 

-Hook: Still have never actually seen Spielberg's Peter Pan movie, whose reputation is all over the place. 

2001:

-A Beautiful Mind: It won the Oscar. It didn't do much for me. 

-Vanilla Sky: Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe re-united for, of all things, a weird thriller remake. Cameron Diaz was legit pretty great in this, and this was one of the 1st stabs at American stardom for Penelope Cruz. 

-Not Another Teen Movie: Spoof of all the high school movies of the era. I never really understood the idea of spoofing comedies, but this was okay. 1st movie role for somebody named Chris Evans. 

-The Majestic: A failed Jim Carrey vehicle, where he was definitely trying to win awards. 

-The Royal Tenenbaums: One of the more beloved Wes Anderson movies. I wasn't quite there yet with him. 

-How High: Stoner comedy with Method Man and Redman. I remember I saw this opening day and the person at the theater didn't know what movie I was talking about. 

-Gosford Park: Very boring Robert Altman movie that took a whole bunch of Oscar nominations away from better films. 

-I Am Sam: We were still doing the thing where an actor would try to win awards by playing somebody mentally disabled. Dakota Fanning's debut.

2011:

-New Year's Eve: One of those holiday ensemble movies that wasn't very good. 

-The Sitter: A really bad Jonah Hill comedy, which stood out more coming right after Moneyball. 

-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: A Gary Oldman spy movie. I remember falling sleep in the theater.

-Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows: Did not like the first Sherlock flick. Never saw this sequel.

Coming next month:

Hey it's a new year! And not a whole lot to look back on, other than Juice turning 30. Yet I'll still find a way to barely get this thing done by the end of the month.