Cinematic Throwbacks: May 1994/2004/2014
1994:
Many directors wind up doing their own autobiographical film somewhere along the way. They usually don't have grand, cinema-changing ambitions. They just exist to tell a small story that really matters to them.
One of my favorites of this type is Spike Lee's Crooklyn. This was a big deal movie to me at the time. I had very much gotten into films from black filmmakers by now, and I am pretty sure I had seen all of the films of Lee's. He was firmly one of my favorite directors.
But Crooklyn marked my first in-theater Lee film, so this was a big deal. And in 1994, the arrival of a new Spike Lee joint was still a big deal in the culture. He was coming off of Malcolm X, when he was arguably at the peak of his importance. So what a pivot, to go from a very provocative and political film, to this nice little movie Crooklyn.
And this film is like nothing Lee ever made. It IS nice. There's conflict, sure, but it's nothing too serious.
Set in the early 70s in Brooklyn, the film is a slice of life about a family. Mother is Alfre Woodard, a teacher. Father is Delroy Lindo, a musician. And they have 5 kids, 4 of them.boys. The one girl, Troy, is more or less the lead of the movie, and Zelda Harris is fantastic, with one of the best child performances of all time. She popped up in He Got Game and a couple of other things, but she never transitioned to an acting career.
This was obviously the setting Lee grew up in, and even if I personally didn't, you can tell all the little details are just right, from the candy they eat to the shows they watch, to all the various bit characters that float through the movie. It made me nostalgic for growing up in Brooklyn, and I most assuredly did not grow up in Brooklyn.
Harris and the other kids are raw actors but very natural, and completely believable as siblings. Lindo is just fantastic in what I think was his 1st real lead, and Woodard is also excellent. A handful of Lee regulars pop up during the movie, including Lee himself.
Lee did make one big swing and miss. Troy travels south to visit relatives for part of the film, and Lee chose to shoot this entire segment of the film with a compressed picture, making everything look stretched up. I remember wondering what the hell was wrong with the projector. Nothing was wrong, it was just Lee's way of conveying how weird and alien this was for Troy. But it made it hard to watch, and even now it is easily the weakest part of the film.
I just want to be back in Brooklyn enjoying all the little episodic moments. We do return for a finale that also takes a turn for the tearjerking.
All of it is backed by a soundtrack so packed with classics that they had to put out 2 volumes.
This film remains one of my Lee favorites. I think my top 3 is solidly Do The Right Thing, He Got Game, and 25th Hour. Crooklyn is in the mix for 4th place.
2004:
Roland Emmerich has been a big screen showman for 30 years now. Now, it hasn't always been a GOOD show. For every Independence Day or 2012, there's a Godzilla or, well, Independence Day: Resurgence (still can't believe that happened).
For me, my 2nd favorite movie of his after ID4 is The Day After Tomorrow, aka the climate change disaster movie.
While a big hit, this movie was kind of an instant target for mockery. Obviously, we know why. The denial of climate change/global warming/whatever you wanna call it was already a big grift 20 years ago. South Park did a whole episode mocking this movie, and mocking Al Gore for believing in global warming/ManBearPig.
Now, climate change IS real. It IS being influenced by the actions of a planet of billions of humans. If you still do not believe these facts by now, you are beyond hope. But TDAT is a movie, and takes wildly inaccurate liberties with science. Which is fine. Cause it is a MOVIE. My criteria is always is if they make outlandish things believable within the world of a particular movie. And I think they more or less accomplished that here, in part by having the scientific experts themselves be so befuddled.
So anyway, this movie shows the entire northern hemisphere undergoing a climate shift due to melting polar ice altering the Atlantic current, ultimately leaving us in a new ice age. It just happens within a matter of days instead of taking place over centuries.
The human plots tend to feel perfunctory in disaster movies, even when they are well done (as they were in ID4). I think this movie does a solid job. They don't wait too long into the movie before the shit hits the fan, so we don't get TOO much of Jake Gyllenhaal on his school trip to New York, having a crush on Emmy Rossum (as one does).
Gyllenhaal's dad is Dennis Quaid, a climate scientist who is one of the first to see what's happening, and tries sounding the alarm to no avail. The US president and VP are blatantly modeled on Bush and Cheney (oblivious doofus and total prick). It's kind of hilarious now to see Quaid as a man of science.
So, most of the setup is Quaid trying to alert people, and Gyllenhall and company watching their trip turn into a disaster.
The film sprinkles in a handful of cool weather disaster sequences into the first half of the film. Tokyo is barraged by hail the size of basketballs. Los Angeles gets decimated by tornadoes. I enjoyed that cause this movie came out right after the Lakers beat the Wolves in the playoffs.
But as all disaster movies do, there is that one before and after sequence. Here it is when a giant tidal wave crashes into NYC. From here, these giant hurricane-like storms start coming south, freezing everything and blanketing it all in snow. Or, as Minnesotans call it, a standard winter.
The rest of the movie is Gyllenhaal and company holding up in NYC trying to survive the cold, while Quaid tries traveling on foot to save them. Kind of a bad plan, but whatever.
The storm does this thing where once the eye appears, it flash freezes everything super fast, including people. Scientifically, that makes little sense, but it's pretty cool. And it sets up a sequence where Gyllenhaal is essentially trying to outrun the cold.
I just really get into the premise of this movie, and the what-if. I think it's really well executed here.
2014:
I've already probably blogged about enough of these X-Men films to be repeating myself, but I think the franchise has a much better track record than it gets credit for. Not a single film in it that I think is all-out bad. And a couple of absolute homeruns that can stand amongst the very best comic book movies of all time.
Days Of Future Past is one of those. I might even say this is the very best X-Men film ever made.
I was VERY excited for this one. A big, epic story bringing together both the original X-Men cast and the newer reboot cast. It's not the multiverse, but it scratches that same itch years before the MCU went there.
It was also a big deal that they had got Bryan Singer back into the director's chair for the first time since X2. Yeah, Singer soon became persona non grata, but the man made some great X-Men movies.
The plot here starts way into the future. The human plan to create giant robots called sentinels to combat mutants has led to the decimation of the whole planet. Humans are enslaved. What remaining mutants are hunted.
Those remaining include a handful of returning characters: Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Storm, Kitty, Iceman, and a few that are new to this movie.
The idea is to send Wolverine's mind back in time to stop Mystique from causing the inciting incident that leads to the war. So that brings in the First Class main cast, who do get the majority of the screen time. This film is a particularly string showcase for James McAvoy, who gets to be a very different Xavier than anything seen before.
The best new addition to that group is definitely Evan Peters as Quicksilver. A quirk in the rights allowed that character to be in both this franchise and then the MCU. And this is one spot where the X-Men universe does best the MCU. This version of Quicksilver is great, and gets the single best scene in the movie, when they are breaking Magneto out of prison.
The whole movie has a fantastic, propulsive sense of tension, since we know the future timeline has only so much time to spare. And the sentinels, which can instantly mimic all mutant powers, are actually pretty scary creations.
Mystique is kind of an idiot tbh, but Jennifer Lawrence does good pissed off rage. Better is Michael Fassbender, who sells Magneto's arc really well. And of course Hugh Jackman sails through the movie in fine form.
In the future timeline, Stewart and McKellen get to share a few great scenes together. And I was stoked to see TAFKA Ellen Page back.
DOFP is a pretty funny movie too. They get a lot of mileage out of the 70s setting and various callbacks.
The climax is terrifically compelling stuff, as the whole future of everything comes down to seconds. And then the ending acts as its own reboot, essentially erasing X-Men 3 from the canon and bringing back Jean Grey and Cyclops.
I really think this film holds its own with some of the very best of its genre.
I have a great deal of affection for this movie. The 2nd entry of Sony's ill-advised total reboot of the Spiderman franchise wound up being the film that led to them making the deal with Marvel to get the character into the MCU.
This film wasn't the problem. That first one was. It was such a by the numbers copy of a much better film. At least this sequel is its own thing.
It has problems, for sure. Almost all of them involve the villains. Sony did not heed the lesson of Spiderman 3 and stuffed too many of them into this. You figure that Jamie Foxx's Electro will be the big bad. But the film also throws in Dane Dehaan fast-tracked transformation into the Green Goblin. Paul Giamatti for some reason took on the 2 scene role of The Rhino.
They also misfired by thinking the mystery surrounding Peter's parents is interesting. It's not. Every scene of this is dull.
Jettison one of the 2 major bad guys, and forget the parents' stuff, and you have a much better movie.
I still think lots of this movie works like gangbusters. Andrew Garfield was a great Spiderman. His chemistry with Emma Stone (looking her best ever) is so fun and charming. Oh yeah, you could also get rid of the bit where Peter keeps seeing Denis Leary's disapproving ghost several times.
That first big set piece with Electro is pretty damn excellent. The Peter-Harry scenes before the villain turn starts are just great. Hans Zimmer's Spiderman theme is fantastic..
And now the climax. I can't remember going in if I knew they were doing the death of Gwen Stacy story. I do think it felt a little fast to go there. But they really do nail it. Gwen dies. Garfield acts his ass off for Peter's reaction.
And then after the grieving period, Peter's Spiderman comeback is just one of my favorite endings to any comic book film. It's genuinely moving stuff, and I wish Garfield got his full trilogy. Though it's no coincidence he was the highlight of No Way Home.
Other non-deep dive flicks:
1964:
-From Russia With Love: The 2nd James Bond movie.
1984:
-Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The least regarded of that original trilogy.
-Firestarter: Little Drew Barrymore going crazy and lighting motherfuckers on fire.
-Sixteen Candles: I think I watched this for the 1st time during the COVID shutdowns. Not bad.
-The Natural: Considered one of the all time great baseball movies. I watched it once a long time ago and thought it was just okay.
1994:
-Beverly Hills Cop 3: A pretty big bomb, but I was a pretty big fan at the time. I saw it in theaters and was pretty excited about it. I still prefer it to 2.
-The Flintstones: This was a huge movie at the time. About the only thing I remember about it was Halle Berry's wardrobe. I still use my McDonald's Flintstones glass to this day.
-Maverick: Another big hit based on a TV show that's kind of been forgotten. Probably worth a rewatch.
-Clean Slate: Saw this in theaters too. (We're reaching the point where I saw at least 1 movie in theaters every week) Dana Carvey as a detective with amnesia. I thought this was pretty funny at the time.
-The Crow: More known for Brandon Lee's death than anything about the movie itself. But it was a hit.
-Dream Lover: My teenage self really appreciated Madchen Amick and all that she did in this Fatal Attraction ripoff.
2004:
-Saved: A pretty fun comedy satirizing religious zealots within a high school. Mandy Moore went way against type as a mega bitch.
-Van Helsing: That summer's big kickoff movie was a dud with Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale hunting monsters
-Troy: Trying to be the next Gladiator, this one was from Wolfgang Petersen and starred Brad Pitt as Achilles. It was i-ight.
-Shrek 2: One of the biggest animated hits of all time. I didn't like it, cause I thought it just ruined the way part 1 ended.
-Baadasssss!: Mario Van Peebles made a film.about his father making his break-through film. One of the better movies about making a movie.
2014:
-Godzilla: The movie that kicked off what has turned out to be a pretty damn good cinematic universe. This was alright, but it has very little Godzilla and way too much boring human action.
-Chef: Jon Favreau's movie about a chef is quite entertaining and holy crap does it make you hungry.
-Neighbors: Seth Rogen goes to war with a frat. I recall liking the 2nd one of these more.
-Blended: Actually a pretty decent latter day Adam Sandler comedy. He teamed back up with Drew Barrymore and their chemistry is still fun.
-Maleficent: Angelina Jolie in one of the many Disney live action tries, this one spun off of Sleeping Beauty.
-A Million Ways To Die in the West: Seth MacFarlane's quite dreadful western comedy. Mercifully the last time he tried to be the lead in a movie.
Coming in June...
Lots.
Star Trek 3 turns 40. My god, Bones!
Speed turns 30, so time to gawk at Sandra Bullock again.
We go back to Spiderman, as Spiderman 2 turns 20.
And several good ones turn 10.
Much to watch.
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